Lesson's from the garden
Ker
June 27, 2017
0 Comments
I think it goes without saying that ALL gardeners face challenges, and those challenges are as wide and varied as the varieties of plants we grow. I also think that many gardeners (especially novice gardeners like myself) naively assume that those laws of gardening either don't apply to them, or don't consider them in the first place. I'm guilty of both.
I became enamored with the idea of gardening shortly upon arriving to the south. In my sweet neighborhood in Upstate, SC, the tulip's and lily's are seemingly endless, and my neighbors take pride in having well manicured landscapes full of azalea's & hasta's. None of that was for me. I wanted an edible garden, and after consulting with my father-in-law (who also happens to be one of my neighbors) 2 galvanized metal raised beds were constructed, and filled with straw, top soil and mushroom compost. It was expensive to fill those beds! Two weeks after the beds were filled, it was one week into May and time to procure plants. I had done little research - I knew I wanted tomatoes, but that was about it. I sent my father-in-law and husband out to Home Depot, and I hastily researched space requirements while they listed off the plants available.
They came home with 8 tomato plants (2 roma, 2 cherry, 2 grape & 2 better boys), some cucumber plants, jalapeno plants, bell peppers and a few sweet potato slips. It was a small garden, but it grew well. That first year I under watered, under pruned, ran from bugs and spiders, and immediately set my sights on going bigger.
After much research (and determining that the cost of building raised beds would be more than I could spare from our meager garden budget) and considering that I also happen to live in the middle of the forest, I settled on deep mulch gardening. I read everything written by Ruth Stout. I covered the soil in my future garden diligently, at first with woodchips, and then with fall leaves from my 100 ft oak trees. I had learned enough to know that growing in this awful clay soil would simply not allow the roots in my plants to spread and certainly wouldn't allow for delicacies like carrots, onions, beets and turnips.
With the method of gardening all set, I then turned to my next desire - growing all my own plants from seed. I started accruing anything and everything - over 30 varieties of tomato plants, and even more than that of peppers. I wanted ALL heirloom (because I had picked up along the way that hybrids were somehow not worthy of any gardeners attention). I learned about Winter Sowing, and also set up an indoor grow station using a metal shelf and shop lights. Armed with Jiffy Peat Pellets and 2 liter bottles, I started my seedlings well before I should have. I quickly ran out of peat pellets, and space, and decided I would start lettuce and kale from seed directly in the garden. I failed to keep any of my brassicas alive (it was far too warm in my grow room I assume). My tomatoes and peppers quickly outgrew their Jiffy Peat Pellets, but I refused to up pot them, and they suffered for it. By the time April rolled around many seedlings had been lost, or were lost quickly after being transferred to their new homes. I seriously lost an entire 72 cell flat of herbs.
I knew I needed to protect my plants from various forest monsters (in particular the squirrels) and with the help of my husband we built a fence around the perimeter using wood poles and deer block netting. Any time there was a storm the netting would be torn and tangled with sticks and other debris. Still, this rickety structure seemed to keep the squirrels out, but didn't deter the beasts in the soil (pill bugs and cut worms) that made quick work of the tender and barely standing tomato plants.
To make matters worse, I quickly realized that the number one problem that I would have in my garden (even worse than the bugs and squirrels) was the lack of sunlight. My entire property is surrounded by an enormous canopy of oak trees. I'm lucky to get the 3-4 hours of direct sun that I do (and only in the sunniest part of the garden, the southern side is lucky to get 2 hours a day). After a wet winter and a very warm spring, the foliage was in full effect very much earlier than I was accustomed to.
Yet, even still - I find myself at the end of June with a blooming garden. In very poor sun, I have tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, corn, beans, peppers and more --- all still growing despite all the experts insistence that nothing should grow in my garden.
I know I can't be the only one out there - living in the forest, with very little sunlight, wanting to grow a vegetable garden. This is only my 2nd year growing, but I look forward to sharing my journey on this blog for years to come! Welcome to Kerith's Garden!
I became enamored with the idea of gardening shortly upon arriving to the south. In my sweet neighborhood in Upstate, SC, the tulip's and lily's are seemingly endless, and my neighbors take pride in having well manicured landscapes full of azalea's & hasta's. None of that was for me. I wanted an edible garden, and after consulting with my father-in-law (who also happens to be one of my neighbors) 2 galvanized metal raised beds were constructed, and filled with straw, top soil and mushroom compost. It was expensive to fill those beds! Two weeks after the beds were filled, it was one week into May and time to procure plants. I had done little research - I knew I wanted tomatoes, but that was about it. I sent my father-in-law and husband out to Home Depot, and I hastily researched space requirements while they listed off the plants available.
They came home with 8 tomato plants (2 roma, 2 cherry, 2 grape & 2 better boys), some cucumber plants, jalapeno plants, bell peppers and a few sweet potato slips. It was a small garden, but it grew well. That first year I under watered, under pruned, ran from bugs and spiders, and immediately set my sights on going bigger.
After much research (and determining that the cost of building raised beds would be more than I could spare from our meager garden budget) and considering that I also happen to live in the middle of the forest, I settled on deep mulch gardening. I read everything written by Ruth Stout. I covered the soil in my future garden diligently, at first with woodchips, and then with fall leaves from my 100 ft oak trees. I had learned enough to know that growing in this awful clay soil would simply not allow the roots in my plants to spread and certainly wouldn't allow for delicacies like carrots, onions, beets and turnips.
With the method of gardening all set, I then turned to my next desire - growing all my own plants from seed. I started accruing anything and everything - over 30 varieties of tomato plants, and even more than that of peppers. I wanted ALL heirloom (because I had picked up along the way that hybrids were somehow not worthy of any gardeners attention). I learned about Winter Sowing, and also set up an indoor grow station using a metal shelf and shop lights. Armed with Jiffy Peat Pellets and 2 liter bottles, I started my seedlings well before I should have. I quickly ran out of peat pellets, and space, and decided I would start lettuce and kale from seed directly in the garden. I failed to keep any of my brassicas alive (it was far too warm in my grow room I assume). My tomatoes and peppers quickly outgrew their Jiffy Peat Pellets, but I refused to up pot them, and they suffered for it. By the time April rolled around many seedlings had been lost, or were lost quickly after being transferred to their new homes. I seriously lost an entire 72 cell flat of herbs.
I knew I needed to protect my plants from various forest monsters (in particular the squirrels) and with the help of my husband we built a fence around the perimeter using wood poles and deer block netting. Any time there was a storm the netting would be torn and tangled with sticks and other debris. Still, this rickety structure seemed to keep the squirrels out, but didn't deter the beasts in the soil (pill bugs and cut worms) that made quick work of the tender and barely standing tomato plants.
To make matters worse, I quickly realized that the number one problem that I would have in my garden (even worse than the bugs and squirrels) was the lack of sunlight. My entire property is surrounded by an enormous canopy of oak trees. I'm lucky to get the 3-4 hours of direct sun that I do (and only in the sunniest part of the garden, the southern side is lucky to get 2 hours a day). After a wet winter and a very warm spring, the foliage was in full effect very much earlier than I was accustomed to.
Yet, even still - I find myself at the end of June with a blooming garden. In very poor sun, I have tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, corn, beans, peppers and more --- all still growing despite all the experts insistence that nothing should grow in my garden.
I know I can't be the only one out there - living in the forest, with very little sunlight, wanting to grow a vegetable garden. This is only my 2nd year growing, but I look forward to sharing my journey on this blog for years to come! Welcome to Kerith's Garden!
