Practical, Pretty and Functional Garden

I'm practical and pragmatic.  Boring.  

In my field writing functional goals is critical to meeting them.  To write a goal that makes sense to someone else but not to the one whose goal it belongs to...is SENSELESS!

The same thinking relates in gardening.   Why should I make a garden that works for someone else- somewhere else when I need to plan and design what works for me.

Design is such an intimidating word.  Especially for someone who does not have an artistic bent.  

As I've read and thought about this...design is just planning.  Planning what works in my soil, my garden, and in my life.

It isn't bulldozing what I have and installing the "perfect" garden.  I will never have the money or time to have a perfect garden.  Next best thing?

A functional one.

My design process:

Draw out what I have to work with.

Think about what flowers and vegetable plants that I want.  

What is the most important aspect to me?  How can my garden work for my family? Reducing  food cost is huge.  Creating a place to rest and enjoy.  

So I need to take into account the "opportunity cost" involved.  What is going to give me the biggest bang for my buck!  If I just buy flowers then I won't have enough for vegies.

Keeping my dream alive about what I would love to do or have and yet cutting myself some slack.

I'm not getting discouraged that I can't get my fence up or have an arbor etc. What I can do is put up a cow panel that vines will cover.

 

Keep my personality in mind.  

For example... I love to wander, meander and do bits here and bits there.  

Last year I tucked herbs in one flower bed and zucchini behind it.  

This year's plans?  Building two more raised beds and planting my squash in a totally new unused and ugly spot between the garage and a fence.  Adding different lettuces and plants such as Kale and Chard to flower beds away from my "garden beds."  I can't wait!

 

Starting Seeds

I'm excited to begin a few seeds this weekend.   Learning the hard way is my only way it seems.  

Lessons I've learned:

•  Buy good seeds and plant when fresh.
• Use good hygiene and sterilize used pots and tools with a 10% Clorox rinse.
• Take my time. Don't rush beginning seeds. 
• Begin small.
• Transplant into larger pots SOONER  rather than later.
• Use good soil.
• The top of the fridge is a great place for germination as it keeps them warm.  
• Keeping them covered with something like Saran Wrap held up by pop sickle sticks works great!  
• Take it off as soon as the seed sprouts.
• Don't be selfish and crowd the plants.  Give baby plants lots of room for air to circulate.  I keep the ceiling fans on so the air moves.
• Turn them daily so each side of the plant has the opportunity to suntan!  
• Don't be chintzy.  Transplant into good sized containers.

This year I'm so excited to use my new-old shed to help my growing plants toughen up to be ready for the growing season.

Footstep Garden: Reducing Stress...Improving Results

Footstep Garden: Reducing Stress...Improving Results: I would HIGHLY recommend taking the Master Gardener class in your area.   Last night we discussed managing perennials presented by the Ba...

Reducing Stress...Improving Results

I would HIGHLY recommend taking the Master Gardener class in your area.   Last night we discussed managing perennials presented by the Backyard Farmer.  It was a rich lesson.

Trees, perennials, annuals, grass and kids all just want to be where they belong.  To grow in the environment that is best for them with the right nutrition and relationships.

Plants respond to stress and trauma in much the same way we do.  Stress makes us vulnerable to disease and injury.  Trauma weakens our resilience.  Both can result in a free fall of health and production.    Too much of this or too little of that can set us up to fail.

Forcing plants to bloom when they are not ready.  Bullying them to withstand heat when they are made for shade.  Not accepting them to be what/who they were created to be.

Always being in a hurry or expecting perfection in a plant or person always leads to disappointment and disillusionment.  

Insisting that the growth should come in neat and tidy little steps can actually sabotage healthy development.

Could this be why driving across the sandhills or walking through the prairie gives me such a sense of peace and contentment?

The plants and the land are just doing what they are supposed to do.  The more we accept that and get out of the way...the happier we will all be.

Trees Don't Heal. They Compartmentalize.

Tree Disease was the topic of Master Gardener class.  Our instructor made a comment that trees don't heal but rather compartmentalize.  Like a submarine.  This has fascinating me.  Realize that I work with children and families some of who have been terribly traumatized and are compartmentalized.

Anyway... Trees are amazing!  Growing up on a ranch in western South Dakota where tree groves and stands were critical to surviving those winter blizzards!  Weeding.  Watering by buckets.  This wasn't fun.  But influential.

Experts:  Learn about trees:

To be clear, trees do not heal.  While this might sound false, it is true that trees do not regenerate growth from old cuts and wounds.  What trees actually do is compartmentalize the decay or wound and grow around it.  Dr. Alex Shigo, a legendary tree scientist, coined the phrase CODIT to explain how trees respond to wounds and injuries (including cut limbs).  CODIT is the Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees.  Once a cut is made or a tree is injured, yearly annual growth will begin on the perimeter of the cut.  This growth is from tissue on the tree that hasn't been injured.  This can be readily observed on trees in any landscape, and it is what creates the "cat eye" look of old cuts on trees.  Years after normal tree care, in which the cuts were made properly, you can observe that the cuts have been closed or are beginning to close by annual growth.  This doesn't, however, mean the tree healed that cut, but rather it simply grew around it and moved on.  Trees have an amazing ability to compartmentalize injuries, diseased limbs, and cut limbs.  
http://www.weknowtrees.com/how-do-trees-heal.html

Trees for Western Nebraska
 
http://youtu.be/QV9_86AZNC8

Nebraska Statewide Arboretum
 
 http://arboretum.unl.edu/greatplants/

 http://nfs.unl.edu/retreenebraska.asp

HEART'S CRY: Essential Can't be Qualified? No more. No less.

HEART'S CRY: Essential Can't be Qualified? No more. No less.: “Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every...

It's not complicated. Yet.

It's not complicated.  Yet.  Give me a minute and that could change.  Why don't I just, "Get Ready..."

When my boys were little, this was our nightly ritual.  We would say "Get ready.  Get set." Waiting as  as long as possible until three little boys yelled, "Go" taking off running. What a great game!

Get Ready... Expectant.  Prepared.  Excited.  Get in position.  Focus.

Making things difficult is a gift I have.  Complicating and confusing.  It's not. 

I'm reminding myself tonight that gardening is simple.  Not complicated.  Work.  Dedication and commitment.  Not complex.

Gardening is a fairly simple endeavor.  Good soil.  Seeds.  Water.  Sun.  Planting and weeding.  Getting out of the way.  

Who needs 20 kinds of carrots, lettuce and fifty different tomato plants? Good grief.  The more I research varieties and what should be grown when and where the more I think I should just go and pick up whatever jumps in my hand.

So here is my list.   I've whittled it down.  

 Asparagus:
Jersey Giant or Supreme


Beans:
-Pole. Kentucky or Kentucky Blue

Carrots:

Danver:     Healthmaster
Imperator:  Sugarsnax

Cucumber:
 Sweet Slice

Kale:
Vates

 Lettuce:

Looseleaf:  Red Sails.
Oakleaf

Onions:
Oasis

Peas:
Oregon Giant
Sugar Daddy

Peppers:
King Arthur

Potatoes:
Dark Red Noland
Kennebec
Yukon Gold

Pumpkin:
Small Sugar

Radish:
Cherriette

Spinach:
Melody
Olympia

Squash:
Zucchini
Sunburst

Tomato:
Big Mama
Big Beef
Bush Celebrity

Mesclun
Society Garlic