Growing Wise : garden maintenance

A Garden That Suits Your Life

Elisabeth — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:27:00 GMT

The gardening season is far from over in most parts of the country, but it's still a good time to take stock. Look around your garden and your property in general. Do you like what you see? If not, it's time to plan the changes that will allow you to have the best garden possible, given your schedule and level of interest.

First think about those lawn and garden tasks that never get done. Chances are, they never get done because you hate them. Consider ways of making those tasks easier or making them go away all together. For example, if your back hedge is always overgrown because you hate to trim it, consider hiring a local teenager to do the job. If you don't have the money to hire someone on a regular basis, think about incurring the one-time expense of removing the hedge and putting in a fence instead. If neither option is desirable, for financial or other reasons, think about trimming the hedge in ten or fifteen minute increments. You can get a lot accomplished in relatively small amounts of time, and even onerous jobs are less taxing if they are limited.

Maybe there are no tasks that you really hate, just too much to do and not enough time to do it. If this is the problem, you need to either change your life or change your garden. If gardening is your passion and you are frustrated by not getting enough gardening time, look at your other responsibilities. If there are chores/responsibilities that you can eliminate, delegate or make more efficient, then do so. If that isn't possible, or isn't possible right now, consider replacing high maintenance perennials and annuals with flowering shrubs. Mulch everything thoroughly to cut weeding and watering chores. Keep your garden tools in one, easily accessible place. If you can afford it, hire someone to help out with weeding or other routine tasks.

Gardening should be about joy and relaxation not guilt and toil. Make the changes necessary to give yourself that gift of joy.

Self Sown

Elisabeth — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:33:00 GMT

Lately as I've been weeding the garden, I've noticed many self-sown seedlings, especially foxgloves, larkspur, perilla and even rose of Sharon. When I was a novice gardener, I never grubbed out unwanted seedlings, because I was afraid that if I did so I would somehow jinx all my gardening efforts. After all, what are self-sown plants if not a gift horse, and we've all been taught never to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Now that I have many years of gardening under my belt, I am more practical and less superstitious. The same plants have been self-seeding in my yard for years, and if I grub out the unwanted ones no harm at all will be done. Plants like California poppy, which produce thousands of seeds, do so to ensure the survival of the species. Even if I pull out scores of tiny California poppy offspring, I won't come anywhere near getting all of them.

Of course the choice plants that I want to self-sow rarely do so. That's part of the natural order as well. Some of those plants are sterile hybrids; others just need extremely specific conditions for proper germination. The money that I save by not buying the self-seeders can be spent on plants that refuse to reproduce in my private Eden.

Wise gardeners make peace with nature--and grub out chance-sown seedlings.

Cleaning Up

Elisabeth — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:56:00 GMT

If maintaining a beautiful garden is about creating a series of beautiful pictures, then the most important part of the act of creation is editing. To put it in a less artistic way--cleaning up is one of the best things you can do for your garden. For example, my blackberries have finished bearing fruit for the year. For the health of the blackberry patch and the beauty of the area around it, I need to cut back the spent canes. The daylilies have mostly come and gone. I generally let the foliage ripen a bit, then cut it back so that the asters and other late summer and early fall flowers can shine.

Of course there are a few exceptions to this rule. Once blooming roses often form lovely hips, and should be left alone. Some clematis sport interesting seed heads that deserve a moment (or two) in the sun. On the whole, though, it's a good idea to carry a pair of clippers with you on your daily trips around the yard. That makes it easy to clip spent stalks, leaves or branches.

Individuality

Elisabeth — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:27:00 GMT

My upper back garden features a six by seven-foot plot that is home to a trumpet vine, a large peony and several clumps of daylilies, plus assorted hardy geraniums, bleeding heart and self-sown nigella ("love in a mist"). An abundance of rain followed by a blast of heat meant that they all leafed out and bloomed at one time. By last week I had a jungle on my hands.

Plants, though they are not human, should be able to express themselves as individuals. The individuals in my back garden were all shouting loudly, creating visual chaos. I met them with my clippers poised for action.

The trumpet vine, which I have trained in the form of a small tree, was trying to revert to its original viney form. I cut it back into shape. The bleeding heart had done its thing, so I lopped its soon-to-be brown branches. The peony still had some buds, but I trimmed the spent flowers and their stalks and leaves. I also sheared the geraniums.

Now my individuals are speaking coherently once more. The daylilies can see the light of day and the nigella can bloom to their hearts' content. I can see a bit of earth between the plants and get in and out to weed without being trapped in a passionate embrace with the trumpet vine.

The upper back garden is coherent now. Next--liberation of the rest of my garden!