As I sit an enjoy the air conditioning after mowing the lawn and contemplate that the next planting season is happening upon us quickly, I'd like to make note of the gardening lessons we learned this summer:
1) Don't be too ambitious. The weeds and grass are ambitious enough for everyone. Take the summer "off" so to speak as the work of maintaining the yard and defending the perennials against bugs and disease is enough. Also, Gloria loves the outdoors... until sweat drips into her eyes- about 15 minutes in typical summer heat.
2) Leave the permaculture to the experts. It all sounds great to have stuff growing all over everywhere with "plant guilds". But frankly, I don't know enough to make it work. We're going back to single crop beds (a bit of companion planting, but not with anything vining) until we get it a bit more under our belt.
3) Know what pests to expect, be ready for them with the proper sprays and a GOOD sprayer. Have a back up sprayer just in case.
4) Next summer we'll do only okra, beans, cowpeas, and maybe amaranth for the greens, but only if I feel like tackling the moths that turned every single seed head into their cocoon residence.
5) Put the garden fence in the middle of a weed barrier and mulched row. I put it on the edge and it looks horrible since I can exactly mow right on the fence row..
6) Use cow manure- not horse manure. There seems to be some who think otherwise, but given the amount of weed seed we had in the horse manure, I'd like to try the cow manure instead.
7) Know what to expect when harvesting... ie- don't harvest cowpeas as green snaps because you forgot that you only planted purple specked and yard long beans for snaps and end up eating meal after meal of tough, short, green snaps.
8) Don't plant anything that requires drying in the field. The humidity makes it rot before it dries. (Ie- sunflowers).
9) Don't believe the people who say that pumpkins and watermelon are good ground covers... its true, they cover ground... and all your companion plants as well such as strawberry, dill, and marigolds. I've lost them all despite repeated digging out, moving vines and trying to protect and still have an obscene amount of weeds.
10) Don't feel compelled to make a list of lessons into a nice pretty number like 10.
1 comment:
You should grow sunflowers in the winter, plant early if you want them to dry. Watermelons can be planted on black plastic. It keeps them off the ground, and the bugs out of them, and they love the reflected heat.
I agree about the weeds. Usually, at this time of year, I just try to maintain, and wait until fall to try to get a handle on the weeds.
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