Gardening for the Future Me
It’s been a strange summer for Posh gardens. Between the drought and extreme heat, I have faced some real challenges. It seems bind weed has no problem not having water and has increased exponentially in my garden, not a good thing. I’ve also noticed and increase in pill bugs or roly pollies as well as earwigs, neither I’m learning are good for the garden! Surprisingly the squash bug population is less this year, which is a blessing for sure!
Tomato plants in the valley seem to have been hit with some kind of blight, although mine that are growing in the hoop house seem to being doing just fine. My squash and cucumbers did not take, and I had to reseed my melons a second time for them to finally take hold; although that could have also been due to a watering mishap that was more user error than the fault of the plant. The extreme heat also did a number on my lettuce which I’m usually pretty good at growing. The strawberries, blackberries and table grapes have done well, with all three giving me fruit this summer.
I planted out my cutting garden this year with a mixture of successes. My peonies were slow to get started; turns out I might have planted the roots a wee bit too deep. The Dahlias were also slow to start but are now finally taking off. The Zinnias I started in seed trays didn’t make it, so I had to direct sow them as well as the Queen Anne’s Lace and Snapdragons. These three are technically annuals but they reseed themselves. The Zinnias are from seeds I harvested last year. While they did well until about a week or so ago when mildew started to take over, they were noticeable smaller in size. I think when I order my Zinnia seeds for next season I’m going to intentionally look for the largest blooms I can find, as they are real work horses when it comes to floral arrangements.
The Mums I planted from roots are doing okay but the stems are short, I need to research how to address that for next year. Same goes for the Yarrow and the Phlox. These are all perennials so I shouldn’t have to replant them every year. The Yarrow I attempted to grow from seeds but only six plants took, so next year I think I’m going to bite the bullet and buy established plants; the same goes for the Delphinium that I also attempted to grow from seeds… those were a total failure so I will be buying established plants as well. It will take about three years for the cutting garden to really establish itself, assuming I can keep the weeds at bay.
In fact, most of my time in the garden is spent weeding, the least favorite thing about gardening! When my cousin John came to visit this summer, he liked my garden but was blown away by how much work I had to do. He too is a gardener, seems to run in the family, and a master composter! While he was here, he encouraged me to start composting again and provided me with a game plan that was more manageable. This idea of manageability and the garden started to percolate in my head, and I found myself thinking about the future as I get older, the changing climate and how was I going to take care of two acres by myself as Andy continues to recover from his stroke.
John was a wealth of knowledge and gave me several ideas of which I’ve been mulling over as summer moves into fall. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I can’t make the garden profitable, given its small size and the fact that I am a one woman show, then I need to make it more manageable. This is where the idea of gardening for the future me came to be. If I want to keep gardening, I need to figure out how to take care of it more easily. Planting more perennials which includes the cutting garden, soft fruit and the orchard, was my first step.
The current project I’m working on focuses on soil health, water conservation and weed mitigation. It also addresses those pesky furrows I have in the green space of the garden. The furrows are left over from when the garden use to be a hayfield. We were advised not to till up the hay and alfalfa because it acts as grounded cover, so we left it which means the furrows stayed too. Uneven ground is not a good thing for a stroke survivor, or a mid-century person who let’s face it is getting older!
What I’ve decided to do, starting with the Cutting Garden, is replace the hay and alfalfa with wood chips, using cardboard as a weed barrier. The combination of the cardboard and woodchips will fill in the furrows and over time will start to decompose and thus add to the health of the soil. This dynamic duel also helps to keep moisture in, thus reducing the evaporation rate when I water.
The woodchip mulch is about three inches thick and will also suppress the weeds! John says that if I block the light, the weeds can’t photosynthesize and therefore will die! This thought gives me great pleasure as the weeds are the Bain of my existence when it comes to the garden! Once I get the mulch down, this will also reduce the need to mow. However, I have to say, this endeavor is not cheap both in time and money. But my thought is that if I put in the extra time now, then my future self will reap the rewards as I won’t need to mow as much, weeding if there is any will be more manageable, and the garden will look more beautiful! Gardening for the future me gives me hope that I will be able to continue to enjoy and share the garden for decades to come…that thought gives me great joy!
