Garden Gnomes

Garden gnomes originated in Germany and were brought to England in the mid-nineteenth century. Gnomes are supposed to guard against evil spirits and help in the garden at night.  Obviously I need a few more because the one garden gnome I have seems to sit around reading all of the time instead of working in the garden.  Naturally garden gnomes are a huge controversial subject among gardeners, whimsical art or tacky kitch?  You decide. 

Messy Chaotic Gardens or Picture perfect?

On the Garden Rant blog they discuss their manifesto which states that they like chaotic messy gardens instead of picture perfect garden magazine photos.  A former contributor to their blog, the Renegade Gardener begs to differ.  He thinks aspiring to the perfection of most garden photos is a good thing.  I do too.  I get great ideas from magazine photos.  To be honest, the articles don't interest me unless there are great photos or it is a well written piece on a subject that interests me. 

Now, true confession. My deep dark secret is that I probably write as much (or more ) than I actually garden.  I have health issues (lupus), resulting in fatigue and I cant be exposed to the sun for too long and I don't take heat very well.  So you may ask how do I garden, Answer:  very carefully. (ha!)  I get help from a neighbor to mow the grass (I mean weeds) every 2 weeks and do mulching and pruning. I also get help from friends and family.  Having a chronic illness for most of my life I decided a long time ago that since I feel like crap most of the time anyway, I might as well feel like crap while I am doing something I enjoy.  Now in my 50's that is gardening. Parts of the garden are looking pretty good right now (if you don't look to close) and other parts are a mess. As a writer I can identify the bugs that are eating my hibiscus, I can tell you how to prevent the black spot which is defoliating my roses as we speak, and I can give you turf alternative such as the clover and weeds in my lawn.  But when I sit out in a shady spot and doze off near the Zepherine Drouhin rose, while sipping iced herb tea made with my own herbs, I don't care about these imperfections. This is heaven and why I garden.

Another FCNP article

Check out my new article in the Falls Church News-Press, "Shoveling the Brown to Get the Green", on page 32.  It's about healthy soil and using organic fertilizers.  We should cultivate our soil since plants are able to absorb nutrients through their roots courtesy of organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, in the soil.  If you only use inorganic chemicals for fertilizer that do not have organisms in it or don't feed the organisms, the soil will die.  Compost is one of the best things to add to soil as a conditioner, making it a better consistency for the plant roots and as fertilizer because it has nutrients to feed the organisms.

Monthly article in the Washington Beacon Newspaper

Hi everyone, I am now writing another monthly column on gardening, this one is for the Beacon Newspapers, a monthly newspaper for people over 50.  June's column is in the print edition on page 12.  It is available at some doctor's offices and the library among other places, as well as on line.  Hope you enjoy June's article which is about the health benefits of gardening.  Who knew?  Playing in the dirt is actually healthy for you! (It's scientific and everything).  www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/ look on page 12 of the print edition.

HOT HOT HOT

It is early June, but the heat has arrived.  I just had my rain barrel system upgraded to two, so of course it hasn't rained since then.  On the other hand this evening I put out a soaker hose in a far away part of the garden that gets neglected and watered it.  It is now raining.  Oh well, that how it goes.  I still think the soaker hose idea is a good one.

I have learned that I need to plant things about two weeks earlier than I have been.  It gets hot faster than it used to or perhaps the advice I read is for another part of the country, but several things were not quite ready when the heat struck.  Lettuce, peas and kale do not go for this kind of heat and dry conditions.  I am assuming the carrots will not be as tasty either but they are not quite ready yet.  I will try all of these again in the fall. 

Now it is time to get the squash, cucumbers and melons ready for the squash bugs to eat! 

Update on the potato bags.  The plants look very tall and vigorous,  but not sure what if anything is going on down in the dirt.  They also have signs of some white stuff, which I think is a bug related thing not fungus. I shall spray them tomorrow.  Going to try neem oil and or insecticidal soap (if it stops raining).

Ditzy gardener

I am seriously thinking of changing my blog name to the ditzy gardener.  There are moments when I have such mental clarity and organizational energy it is scary.  I have drawn a detailed map of where when and what will be planted in my veggie garden.  I have a mental image of how it will look.  I have painstakenling listed the seed packets, their germination times and which company they come from.  In the spring I wrote down when and what I planted to see how they grow.

Have I continued to write down when and what I have planted?  Have I meticulously followed the plan that I worked so hard drafting with pencil and ruler on graph paper?  No I have not. An unintended army of weeds, crop failures, too much rain (so no spraying for fungus), lack of energy, and now intense heat are my excuses.  In fact, at this point I am not sure where the map is on my desk (another disaster area, although I cannot blame this on weeds.)  Yet some crops grow without much care; the radishes, mizuna, arugala, lettuce (done in by the heat, but delicious beforehand), most of  the peas.  The potatoes in bags look like they are doing well, but not yet ready for harvest.  The pod radish has turned out to be easy to grow and very tasty.  A successful experiment.  Somehow the spinach also did well, although next year I think I will devote a larger area earlier so I can have loads of baby spinach.  Also, the snow pea seedling are so very tasty they will also get a larger area, earlier in the season.  Since I am cutting back on vegetable gardening size I may have just spinach and peas seedling in early spring! Surprisingly I have eaten at least 6 strawberries from the plants first year of growth, very tasty, hopefully next year there will be more!  One type of strawberry seems to be doing better than the other.

My failures are legion.  Beets are a bust.  Rapini a no go (maybe I just needed to harvest them very early, not sure what happened).  Kale may work out but it is getting hot, perhaps they should only be grown as a fall crop.  The soil in the brassica bed turned out to be crummy (long story, not telling), so it is a wonder that anything grew at all, like the arugala.  I have learned a lot from this experience.  My garden next year will, of course, be perfect, a veritable Eden.

So here is my philosphy, I mean the real one, not the one I hope to have:  Read up on the science, try to put it into practice, try to make the best compost possible and then work within your energy level and attention span. 

Something will grow!

Just visited DeBaggio Herb Farm and Nursery

I am in heaven!  Or I should say I am back home after visiting herb heaven.  I have a confession to make, mothers never want to admit that they have favorites so don't tell the vegetables and flowers in my garden but I love herbs the best.  As a group of plants they can't be beat.  They smell, taste and look good.  On top of that most of them are very easy to grow.  A little neglect, no problem.  Crummy soil, you can probably get a pass on that as well.  So when I read about DeBaggio's in Adrian Higgins' Tweets and in his Washington Post articles I just had to visit.  Chantilly VA. sounded far away but it isn't far from Falls Church.  It took me about 30 minutes to drive there from the center of Falls Church City.  It is easy to find via their directions on their website http://debaggioherbs.com/. DeBaggio's is a small place but packed with many healthy herb plants, unlike some places that sell plants that are in terrible shape (they shall remain nameless but it rhymes with Dome Hepot). The selection of herbs is also wonderful.  They have several types of basil, sages, lavenders and lavandin (the latter is more suited to our climate), and a great selection of tomatoes and pepper plants as well.  I went there expecting to blow a whole lot of money.  I wrote a list that I tried to stick with, but ended up purchasing more things than I had planned (not a surprise).  The surprise was that it came in under budget by almost $20 because the smaller plants are well worth the price of $3.29.  Since they appear to be healthy I am not too worried about them making it through the summer either.  If they don't it will be something I have done wrong.  In addition to herbs and vegetables they also have some annuals and perennials.  Check on their website or call (703) 327-6976 before you visit since their inventory changes every day.