This growing season has been a trial for me between the weather and the six produce-stealing puppies running loose.
This TIMELY article landed in my mailbox from Grit Magazine this month. It has helped me keep things in perspective in this trying season; I am now counting some of my fallow beds as having a ‘soil-growing year!’ :)
Tips to Beat the Garden Blues
(Tailoring your garden to your area is an acquired skill. Here are five ways to rebound when plans go awry.)
https://www.grit.com/farm-and-garden/garden-blues-zm0z24jazols/
“’You can’t control the drought,’ he reminded me, ‘but you’ve added tons of compost to those beds and removed tons of rocks. This was a soil-growing year, even if it wasn’t a good food-growing year.’
His words had an encouraging effect on my spirit. Ever since then, I’ve tried to see all the effort that goes into making a food plot productive, even if the produce is lacking because of the weather, a mistake, or the newness of the garden itself.”
* Keep a Garden Journal
* Try a Different Cultivar
* Accept Unavoidable Failures
* Grow ‘Encouragement Plants’
* Count ‘Soil-Growing’ Years as Progress
No raised beds made yet - maybe tomorrow. Yesterday afternoon, after ‘noodling’ for weeks & even dreaming (not kidding) about how to use salvageable metal wire shelving & support beams when the metal side supports are hopelessly damaged, I figured it out. Today is ‘put it together day’ & see if it actually works.
I reset one of my 4 100 lb slate slabs yesterday & am happy with the result. I had to pick it up & move it out of the way ‘only’ twice to work on the base underneath. My piriformis (aka pseudo sciatica) is ‘talking’ to me, but not at a knife stabbing level.
GORGEOUS day here - sunny, low humidity, great breeze, currently 69 degrees. The next few days are forecast to be like ‘early fall’ - yay! If I can find a couple of hours, I would like to go to an orchard I visited last year, not far over the mountain gap. Apples & peaches are coming in :-)
My understanding is that even the ground needs a break from growing once in a while.
We bought our house in 2019, and the previous owners had moved out that year and never got their garden growing. it turned into a massive weed infested mess. He very kindly tilled it later in the summer, but the weeds took over again.
And then the next year, I did plant a few things so it was kind of another rest for most of the garden.
My raised beds were built a few years ago so the soil in them is in pretty good shape. And I’ve been amending it every year with all kinds of goodies so they should be good for a while.