Lessons from the Garden - Part 1

As I walk through my garden and reflect the lessons learned over the last year, I realize that by paying attention and spending time, I have become a much better gardener than I was previously. I thought I'd share some of those lessons with you, and then as time goes on, continue to share since learning is an ongoing process.

The photo above was taken in mid-summer 2020, and illustrates a typical look for my garden. It produced well, but I am hoping that this year's garden does even better. Lessons I have captured in this blog include:

Pests will be pests

Between the raccoons, the gophers and moles, the insects, and the deer, it's a wonder we get any produce or flowers. Here's how I deal with each:

Be preventative. For deer, we plant behind fences the things they most like to eat. For gophers, we use raised beds lined with hardware cloth for the vegetables and cages for the perennials they most prefer. It's hard to find good information on gopher attractants, so we rely on the experience of our landscaping partners, Dreamscapes. Not everything has to be caged, but it can be an expensive lesson if you don't cage the plants they like.

Try not to tempt them. In some cases I was actually attracting pests to my garden without realizing it. For instance, I have a compost bin which most would say is a positive thing for the garden. But I realized that what I was really doing was creating a "salad bar" of temptation for the raccoons. Now every time I dump compost I cover it with dirt. Eventually, the kids have plans to build a hinged lid to keep them out. I also had a Seckel pear tree, which produced well but which we didn't harvest because no one really liked them. This created a whole tree of temptation, which attracted the raccoons as well. After much debate we took it out to remove that temptation. We also covered our fish pond, which eliminates all sorts of animals (including skunks!) from using it as a water source.

- We typically plant anything that is a deer attractant in the backyard, which has been fenced to prevent the deer from getting access. Last year I had several plants "stolen" by the deer when I left the gate open "just for a little while", so I have become more vigilant about that. I also had a few plants out front that attracted deer. For instance, my bird feeders had a nice crop of sunflowers growing underneath them. Being lazy, I let them grow, but then I realized they were actually a favorite of the deer, so that was attracting them to an area they might not otherwise frequent. Solution: transplant the sunflowers to the backyard, where they grew nicely, even though I transplanted them in the fall which I thought was too late for them to bloom.

Be vigilant - this is especially true of the insect pests. For instance, last year I planted lots of seeds, and had them on my potting bench where I could keep an eye on them and keep them misted regularly. But I realized the potting bench "cracks" were the perfect environment for earwigs, and they LOVE little seedlings. Overnight, all my little baby plants would disappear! Last year I regularly patrolled the seedlings and knocked out any pests. I also tried traps such as soy sauce/oil in little containers with holes poked in the top (those worked well but only sporadically) and rolled up newspaper (which didn't seem to work at all). The "traps" that seemed to work best were unintentional, for instance my rolled up gloves, left on the workbench, trapped about 20 earwigs inside them (that was GROSS, feeling them crawling around my hands inside the gloves and trying to knock them out over and over). Crumpled up paper, cardboard boxes, the gates in my backyard (for which the wooden gate sits flush with the wooden post), the boards in my compost which slide up and down all work to collect hoards of earwigs. So my solution now is to patrol all those unintentional "traps" and kill them by pouring in diatomaceous earth. I have also relocated my seedlings once they start to sprout!

- The other pest that I have not been able to conquer is rose slugs. Last year they invaded my rosebushes and spread very quickly. My usual solution is to "pick" the leaves and discard them in my garbage (not compost!), and then if needed, I spray them with a safe solution. But if I keep on top of them I can reduce the spread (and thus the work to control them). Last week I found them on one of my bushes, so I jumped on it and hopefully have them under control. In case you've never seen them, they create "tracks" in the leaves that look like this and if you turn over the leaf, you can see the little slugs.

Being vigilant also applies to gophers and moles. We use "cinch" traps for the gophers, and can occasionally catch moles with them as well, but it requires you to set traps as soon as you see activity. Rick tries to get out in the early mornings and if he sees activity, he floods the tunnels first with water because if they are still there they will "come up for air". He waits with a shovel to take care of them once they poke their heads up. If not, he clears the tunnel and sets the trap. Gophers will try to "fill in the tunnel" and often get caught. With moles we have learned that putting a bucket over the hole makes it dark and fools them into thinking they can progress through their tunnels as usual, and sometimes you are lucky enough to catch them.

Live and Let Live

I call it "lazy gardening" but in some cases it pays off. Sometimes I don't cut back a plant that is done producing, and I've found it pays off. For instance, I didn't harvest all my cilantro, and after awhile it produces flowers. I used to cut them back (when I got around to it), but now I've realized that the bees really like these blossoms so leave them as long as possible. Last year late in the season the bees were all over my broccoli that had gone to seed, so I left them in the garden long past when I normally would.

You can see in that same picture that I have a sweet pea growing amongst my herb plants. I planted sweet peas once in my backyard, and now they are happily volunteering in several places. Volunteers are almost always stronger and better performers, so I have learned to let them live if possible. I once harvested over 50 pumpkins from a volunteer pumpkin plant!

Have you ever tried to grow an avocado tree from a pit by putting it in water in the house? My daughter-in-law Anujin had tried that several times with no luck. She was so delighted when I discovered an avocado tree growing happily in my compost bin! I transplanted it into a pot and it is doing quite well. I also have two peach trees coming up in my veggie beds from where I spread compost last fall. If they make it through the summer I'll pot them up too.

Friendship pays off

One of the many things I enjoy about retirement is getting to know the neighbors better. And in terms of gardening, it's really been a good exchange. I am always happy to share extra produce or the fruits of my labor like jam or pies. Last summer there were six families that would respond to my "I have too much..." and come take some produce off my hands. What I didn't expect was that the sharing came back around. For instance, one neighbor shared flowers from her garden, or veggie seedlings came from another. One neighbor shared her empty canning jars, while another shared fruit from her trees. I was most appreciative of the runs made by a neighbor with a dump trailer, delivering compost and soil in bulk so I didn't have to buy it by the bag. Who knew that a garden could help build community, even if grown in my own backyard?