GARDENING

             

One would think, or at least I do, that having spent 53 years in this house, with at least half, probably more, of those years spent gardening, I would have a garden worthy of note. Not so, although my garden has gone through many iterations during all those years.

For at least a decade or more, I had a fenced off portion in the back yard that was my vegetable garden. I planted all sorts of stuff, but my biggest success were the green beans. I always had at three if not four teepees and harvested so much I ended up canning them every year. Not much luck with green onions or radishes, but lettuce did well. Squash and peas did well and I provided so much zucchini people took to avoiding me. I gave up this garden once the boys got older and no one wanted to help with the weeding and upkeep.

This year, though, I think my garden has been the worst in history. Even the garden I had while undergoing breast cancer treatment and John yelling every time he caught me mucking about in the dirt was better. The weather was a big factor because it rained for months with little warm sun and it was cold besides. I’m a fair-weather gardener and didn’t actually get out there to do much until at least June…months behind my usual schedule.

Last fall I dug up all my dahlias and stored them for the winter. I hadn’t done this before because the garage was stuffed full of John’s treasures. Now it’s just mine and boxes filled with shredded paper fit perfectly on half the work bench. Amazingly, the tubers survived the entire winter, but not necessarily the spring. I did finally get a bunch of them planted, but it was way later than it should have been. Some of them have yet to bloom and the ones that are blooming are fairly scrawny. I don’t think I’ll have a huge bouquet by the time it’s necessary to cut them back for the winter. Very disappointing.

In the past, I’ve just left the dahlia tubers in the ground and if I lost some, ah well. Those that survived, and most did, I would dig up in the spring and separate if the clump of tubers had grown too big. That always worked very satisfactorily, and that’s what I plan to do in the future.

In the spring of 2021, I had three huge fuchsia baskets which I took apart and planted into five baskets. They grew and were lovely. Last fall, I trimmed them back and put them into the shed for wintering over. This is what I had done with previous fuchsia baskets. It was either the cold snap in December (per a woman at Swanson’s Nursery) or me not making sure the soil remained damp, but I lost all five baskets. By mid-June, it was obvious there would be no new growth, so I emptied all the baskets and stored them away. The spring of 2023, I’ll make sure I go to Flowerworld or watch for Fred Meyer’s fuchsia planting weekend, buy small starts and begin anew.

I also lost the two begonia baskets I had cultivated for a couple of years. With them, I think it was the cold snap rather than lack of moisture that did them in. So, no hanging planters to beautify my deck or the front of the house.

The complaining or gardening bad luck continued with my tomatoes, zucchini and lemon cucumbers. For the first time in forever, my tomato plants look diseased or sad due to lack of or too much water, fertilizer or who knows what. Yes, I am getting enough tomatoes to share with family and friends, but not the bounty of years past. Plus, as I said, the plants themselves do not look happy. I had three zucchini plants and got three zucchinis before whatever happens that make the tiny zucchini rot took over. I finally chopped them back to bare dirt. The three lemon cucumber plants are now producing two cukes, but I think that will be it.

The plants that really produced were the snow peas. Usually by June, these plants are done and ready to be pulled. This year I got snow peas into July and they were very yummy, cooked or raw. When I pulled them, I sprinkled zinnia seeds all over the dirt and raked them in. By the end of September, I should have a barrel of blooming zinnias.

When it comes to growing veggies in containers, for the last however many years I always say I’m not going to do it again…and then I do. I’ve a feeling there’s some kind of fungus or problem with the dirt, especially for the tomatoes. Once they’re done producing, I’m going to take the pots and empty them first into the squares in the back lawn where I placed stepping stones. I’ll then add some grass seed. Once those areas are full, I’ll move to the side of the house and dump the dirt there.

Once the pots are all empty, I plan to hose them out, allow them to dry and then spray with a bleach solution to, hopefully, make them sterile in case I’d like to add dirt in spring 2023 and grow stuff again.

Meanwhile, I feel like the gardening I’m doing now is in preparation for a great garden next year. I’ve begun cleaning out flowerbeds and am about a quarter of the way around the back garden. I’m going to see about adding fertilizer and a product that supposed to prevent seeds from germinating without affecting established plants. This, of course, will be in areas where I don’t plan to drop seeds. It’s also allowing me time to yank out plants that have suddenly decided to take over not only their assigned area, but areas that other plants are using.

It always amazes me how a small plant or two can become so HUGE over time. It also amazes me how a plant I thought was yanked and gone for good will suddenly appear after more than a year or two. I eliminated all the loosetrife several years ago, but it popped up in two separate places this year. The same with St. John’s Wort. I planted one of those more than a decade ago, didn’t like it, dug it out and sent it away. Since then and even this year, I come across small plants that must be growing from seeds.

There were white calla lilies in the back yard when we moved in. I tried very hard to make them go away, but it took building a deck over the original patch to eliminate them there. Stupidly, I planted some in a couple of other places and now, I have at least three patches I keep digging up that keep returning. In the front flowerbed, Thor ran a garden tiller through, and it cut up bluebell, calla lily bulbs and lily-of-the-valley plants which I’ve been fighting ever since. They continue to come up and spread and I continue to hack and remove.

I don’t know how long ago I purchased a hummingbird vine via a catalog. The plant arrived and I remember wondering how long it would be before the hummers were able to use it. It grows up one section of the back fence and this year it was stunning. A huge mound of green with lots of vines that ended in red-orange tube like flowers. The hummers were very happy. Unfortunately, now that it’s really established, it thinks it should send runners into the flowerbed and even into the lawn. I keep cutting those back, but I fear it’s going to be another ongoing battle.

All-in-all, I’m happy with my garden and seriously hope I can maintain the work I’ve been doing. If so, I should have lots of photos next year to share. Now, enough dancing on the keys…I need to go dance, i.e., work in the garden.