A lot has happened in the past month! Gardening, hiking, traveling, friends, home stuff…I’m way behind, so I’m just focusing on the gardening portion of that action. Contain your excitement and hold onto your plants…
This year we added one ton, as in 2,000 pounds, of compost to the garden. While this seems like a lot of compost, it only gave about an inch of coverage to the plot. The city of Franklin has an incredible compost program. The guy who runs it is educated in soil management and has a real passion for what he does, his enthusiasm is contagious. You can go to the compost lot and for $20 per yard (about one truckload), you can get some really rich dirt to add to your garden. We got two yards, dumped it all in there, tilled for a second time this season, and then smoothed it all out before adding plants.
I had some serious problems with the garden last year. The three straight weeks of rain in the beginning of the season pretty much destroyed all the tomatoes and fostered a host of pests that were impossible to get rid of later in the season. I also lost the fight with the weeds and nearly ended up in tears a couple of times as I pulled tree-sized invaders out of the beds. It was too much. So this year, barring bad weather, my way of combatting these challenges involved tilling twice, rotating where everything was located, treating portions of the soil with a mixture of soapy water to hopefully kill any larvae still present, and adding a heavy layer of mulch to the path that will hopefully smother weed growth at least in that section.
I also purchased a grow light this year and grew everything from heirloom seeds so I knew exactly what was going into the garden. Starter plants can often carry diseases, pests, or chemicals that people are unaware of, and I wasn’t taking the chance. I have to admit that when I put those pathetic little seedlings out into the world, I was 110% confident they were all going to die. They drooped and stuck their middle fingers up at me and threatened a mass suicide attempt as I begged them to survive in the cold, cruel world of April. Luckily, the sunshine worked its magic and everything is growing like crazy now…
I’ve never grown spinach before, but since it was the one thing Rob asked for this year, I threw some seeds in the dirt. We have more than I know what to do with. One thing I hate about this is the bugs. I find myself obsessively washing this stuff 8 times, spinning it out, and examining each leaf because creatures stick to these leaves like white on rice. I think in the fall/winter, I’m going to attempt growing some inside under the grow light where I won’t have to worry about tiny invaders.
Three years in, the asparagus has hit its stride. We harvested for about 3 weeks before allowing the plants to grow and replenish their energy. This is probably my favorite vegetable garden plant. It’s so easy. Dig a trench, plant the crowns, cover with a pile of compost/manure, let them grow for two years, and then voila, you have delicious asparagus that tastes better than anything you’ll buy in the store.
Aside from the practical chore of growing food, the flowers around the house have made everything so lovely this year. A group of peonies that were here long before I was were relocated from a shady spot and now look like this…
The winter was so mild that the sage in the herb garden bloomed. The smell is heavenly, like Thanksgiving Day!
Dianthus, euphorbia, and geraniums have brightened everything up, along with yarrow, lavender, clematis, and a few early daylilies…
One thing I’ve noticed while sitting in front of my huge office window is how many birds we have in the yard. There are tons! Woodpeckers, bluebirds, finches, sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, titmouse, juncos, chickadees, a very lively brown thrasher, cardinals, mockingbirds…their colors flit past so quickly that I wonder how often they go unnoticed, how few people stop to appreciate their loveliness. Right now, we have a blackbird nest in the large pine next door, a family of 5 just left the bluebird house, a robin’s nest in an apple tree, a mockingbird nest in the weeping cherry, and I recently discovered a finch nest in the explosion of clematis by our front walk.
Every year we have a family of bluebirds in a little house attached to the back fence. This is the first year I’ve been able to watch them from start to finish. I didn’t actually see any of them leave the nest, although one was perilously close one day, hanging out of the opening, but still too timid to go for it. Yesterday, I saw papa bluebird feeding a speckled fledgling on the fence. Bluebirds really are harbingers of happiness because I feel giddy every time I see them. These pictures were taken over a couple of weeks as they grew, up to the day the last two flew the coop.
Each day the yard looks a little different and I walk around in awe of life and growth and beauty. The ability to hike in the mornings before work has also re-opened my eyes to how incredible this world that we live in truly is. I walk a lot, Rob thinks I’m crazy half the time because on the weekends all I want to do is walk. Mostly, it comes from a desire to be outside, out in the air and sunshine, surrounded by the trees and the flowers as they put on a spectacular show for those who take the time to slow down enough to notice.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~ Albert Einstein
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