Gardening

Gardening

  

I love to garden. It was one of the reasons that I decided to build a home at age 64 instead of going into a condo, as many people are doing at that age.  I designed and prepared the garden space in 1994 and first planted it in 1995.  I use the intensive planting method of Mel Bartholomew called Square Foot Gardening, which became popular in the 1980’s when it was a national PBS television series.
Raised beds make it possible to prepare a foot of good soil without having to dig down so far into the clay soil.  Also raised beds provide better drainage.  And they are easier on the knees and back to plant and take care of.  I also used Ruth Stout’s plan of mulching to keep the weeds down and the moisture in. Ruth was a popular writer for Organic Gardening magazine in years past.

I save my seeds from year to year in tightly covered jars in the fridge. The seeds I used this year were:  All lettuce, Romaine, Simpson, and Buttercrunch, 2000;  Beets, Red Ball, 2000, and Detroit Dark Red, 2009;  Carrots, Nantes, 2001, and Danvers Half Long, 2009; Spinach, Bloomsdale Long Standing, 2006; Zucchini, Burpees Hybrid, 2007; Acorn Squash, Table King, 2006; Butternut Squash, 2006; Green snap beans, Blue Lake, pole, 2000; and Cucumber, Burpees Burpless, 2008.  She does not use chemical pest control, but does use Miricle-Gro fertilizer every two weeks.

 

I wanted foundation shrubs to provide color all year long, and flowers, entirely bulbs and perennials, to pretty much take care of themselves. (This doesn’t sound like I’m all that fond of gardening, does it? See next paragraph.) So I have evergreens of varying heights, crimson Barberry, and green and gold Euonomous for the year-round color. Then in front of the shrubbery I have several kinds of iris. These bloom around Memorial Day and then have nice looking greenery the rest of the summer. In the coachlamp area I have evergreen shrubs, tulips, daffodils, and grape hyacinths in the spring, and oriental lilies in mid summer.  I also have hollyhocks on the south side.

My main gardening interest is growing vegetables and fruits. I have 7 raised beds separated by 18-inch stone patio block walkways. One 20-foot bed is for asparagus, one 20-foot bed for strawberries, one 15-foot bed for red raspberries, and four 4x8-foot beds for veggies and herbs. These beds total about 200 square feet of gardening space. In this space I grow 14 kinds of vegetables, 6 herbs and 2 fruits. I grow most, but not all, of my year supply of vegetables. I freeze or can the harvest.

I also had an orchard of fruit trees, which I removed in 2010.  It became too much work.  There were 2 each of  apricot, peaches, apple, cherry, plum, and pear.

It is May 2012 as I write this. From my 2011 harvest I have used all the carrots, onions and cabbage. I still have asparagus, green beans, spinach, butternut squash, and bell peppers in the freezer, and canned tomato/mixed veggie sauce, pickled beets, and pickle relish (a family favorite.) Also I still have some frozen berries.  I rotate the crops so that no veggie is grown in the same garden space more often than every four years. 

 

When I get too old or uninterested in it I will quit, but so far, at age 84 I still love it. It is not the planting or caring for the garden that is the hard part. It is the harvesting, freezing, canning, or drying of the produce that is the hard part.