As I sit
here typing this, I can look out the window and see a lot of my garden. The
dahlias are beautiful, the cosmos almost finished and the tomatoes are
ripening. If I could sit in my swing and type this, I could hear the sound of
the water trickling into my little pond…so relaxing. But, this is also the time
of year when I am more than ready to be done gardening. The only problem is
that there’s at least a couple more months before frost and rain arrive, and I
must retreat into the house.
Every fall,
I make a serious attempt to clean up the flowerbeds, rake up all the leaves,
and prepare the garden for winter as well as have it ready to go when spring
arrives. Since I am only a fair-weather gardener, I don’t always achieve all
the fall tasks I set myself. Last fall, for the first time, my husband was
unable to keep after all the leaves from the big red maple. I managed to blow
them into the flowerbeds for the winter. Imagine what a mess when I began to
clean out those flowerbeds in the spring. I vowed I would hire someone this
fall to make sure all those leaves are in the compost pile and not in the
flowerbeds.
Throughout
winter, I peruse the various seed and bulb catalogs that arrive in the mailbox.
I make lists of the various bulbs and plants I would like to have for the
garden. I also peruse the photographs I
took of last year’s garden and make lists of what I want to move, divide, yank
out, or change in some way. That usually leads to my tossing the wish lists of
what I don’t have because by the time I divide,
move and transplant, there won’t be room for anything new.
Come spring,
I am excited to begin. While working, I would devote entire weekend days (or
take time off) to getting the front or back garden in shape and ready to go.
This, of course, often led to injury even if nothing worse than a sore back.
Now that I’m retired, my mantra is, “You don’t have to do this all in one day.”
This seemed to work pretty well this past year, but often I’d find that once
I’d finished everything, it was time to start back at the beginning.
As spring
progresses, I anxiously await those little spears of green that indicate the
dahlias wintered over (I know…you’re supposed to dig, separate, store and then
replant in the spring…too much work.) or that the cosmos, nasturtiums or
sunflowers reseeded. I purchase tomato plants, squash, pumpkin and cucumber
starts, plant pots of snow peas, green beans and lettuce. I water, fertilize
and watch them all grow and grow and grow.
This last
spring, I even tried something new…straw bale gardening. I bought a couple of
straw bales (one had to be a hay bale because it grew grass like you wouldn’t
believe) and placed them in the area of the garden that gets the most sun. I
then prepared them as directed with water and fertilizer and inserted a tomato
plant, zucchini squash and pumpkin starts in one and Danish and delicata squash
and lemon cucumber starts in the other. Amazingly, all these plants have done really
well although the pumpkins are already ripe and almost all of the plants
(except the tomato) are suffering from powdery mildew. I’ll probably do this
again next spring.
But, to
return to the fact I’m ready to be done now. This happens every year and while
others say my garden is beautiful, my eyes find, without even trying, all the
areas that I’d like to change or fix. For instance, I want to
dig up the entire bed of hostas, divide them severely and replant small
divisions all along the back of that flowerbed. Then, I’d like to dig up three
dahlia plants of the same kind, separate and replant them in front of the
hosta. Well, this isn’t something that can be done right now. Well, it could,
but most likely both hosta and dahlia would not survive…maybe in October unless
the weather is really horrible.
I think my
problem with wanting to be done this early is that in the past I’ve paid too
much attention to the bane of gardening and not the blessings. Amazing how
typing this blog brought me to that realization. So, when complimented, I’m
going to accept the compliment with pleasure and not look for what could be
better. I’m going to concentrate on all the satisfaction and enjoyment I get
from working in the dirt as well as sharing and eating those tomatoes and
vegetables. And, just for fun rather than sadly I think I’ll relish imagining
what my garden might be like next year as I sit in my swing, listen to the
water burble and delight in the beauty that’s now before me.
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