If your garden receives volunteers on the afternoon breeze, don't yank them yet. Watch to see was Nature gives and welcome it to your garden's diversity.
Inspiring, Sue. Such a lovely philosophy of gardening. I have two friends on the same wavelength as you and I will send this to them for inspiration. They will love it. I have a sweet little contained garden, myself, but everything is in neat, tamed, orderly pots. No weeds, nothing wild. More's the pity.
Well, Sharron, you live where that stick in the ground becoming a tree is very possible, so I don't blame your containment. I've tried containers on the patio, but July absolutely chars everything. Last month during a visit to my SIL in Soquel, I almost wept when I saw her succulents just outside her door. All my succulants stay inside because they will burn in the direct Nevada sunlight. I burned my jade tree a bit before I pulled it back inside. Returned it to its favorite spot and now it's not cursing my name anymore. And thank you for sharing this with your friends. We gardeners need to stick together.
My wife have similar experiments in gardening. She tried a lot of companion planting this year. Some of it worked, some didn't. The one thing she did regret was planting Mullein last year. We found that it somehow invites squash bugs to the garden and we've been battling those little bastages ever since with diatomaceous earth. As much as I love Zucchini and other squashes, we'll have to stop growing those for a couple years just to discourage the pests from sticking around. My wife finds that gardening is a constant experiment, especially when having to adjust for warmer temps and fewer pollinators.
Indeed, gardening is ever-evolving. It's been particularly disheartening this year because it seems everything we've broken our bodies over is not working. Especially the plants and seeds we've spent hundreds of dollars on. Jeff has an Amazon addiction that's hard to kick and the bulb/seed catalogs are relentless. We tried transplanting the lavender (after I just read an article about NOT doing that) and of course they died. sigh
I’m wondering if it might behoove us to adopt and use gardening techniques that can counter some of this. Deb uses hand pollination for alot of her plants now as well as letting pseudo-pollinators (Is that the right term?) like wasps and flies in the garden. We are also looking into setting up a cistern based watering system- despite the foolish rules in Vancouver about such things. If set up properly there’s little worry of creating mosquito hazards.
We have lots of pollinators; this year though we've what is called a "short bloom." Snow in late spring and mid-June cuts everything back to nothing. Our usually robust Russian sage just started blooming and the bees that haven't died of starvation are finding it. Jeff's hive absconded sometime last winter: packed up all their honey an brood and took off for Cabo. The remaining bees have been subsisting on Jeff's sugar water, but he's thinking all of his hive bees have died and he's actually feeding the neighbors' bees. So be it! hahahaha As for water, we're on our own well. We do have to be cognizant of our well drying up, but we're careful about household usage. During the hot months, we water every morning from 7a.m. on. He'll deep water (half hour) his potatoes and onions once a week. The rest of the acre, most of it in fact, is on its own.
Oh Sue, beautiful pictures and words - such a lovely post!
I've often heard it said that people moving to a new house with a garden should simply observe the garden for a whole year first before they dig anything up or plant anything new. Soon after I'd moved I spotted a little green something growing where I wasn't sure I wanted anything to be growing - but I left it alone, and became fascinated by what it might become.
It turned out to be a star of Bethlehem - although Google tells me they're prolific and invasive, I'd never knowingly met one before, nor have I seen one since. It didn't spread, actually - it was just the one, it seems - but I'm so glad I'd left it.
A woman after my same heart. Isn't is fascinating to watch the mystery plants reveal themselves. Kind of like watching people come to being. Going through my photos, I found a plant that resembled the primrose, but it had a slightly different leaf and a little star-shaped white blossom. I wonder now if that was a Star of Bethlehem. Also, we tried planting roses and other things on the opposite side of that trellis from the wisteria and they always died. Then the asters took over. Those things will grow anywhere and what a joy they are in autumn. Thank you, Rebecca. I really enjoy your comments and your support. Glad that my stories make you happy.
Inspiring, Sue. Such a lovely philosophy of gardening. I have two friends on the same wavelength as you and I will send this to them for inspiration. They will love it. I have a sweet little contained garden, myself, but everything is in neat, tamed, orderly pots. No weeds, nothing wild. More's the pity.
Well, Sharron, you live where that stick in the ground becoming a tree is very possible, so I don't blame your containment. I've tried containers on the patio, but July absolutely chars everything. Last month during a visit to my SIL in Soquel, I almost wept when I saw her succulents just outside her door. All my succulants stay inside because they will burn in the direct Nevada sunlight. I burned my jade tree a bit before I pulled it back inside. Returned it to its favorite spot and now it's not cursing my name anymore. And thank you for sharing this with your friends. We gardeners need to stick together.
My wife have similar experiments in gardening. She tried a lot of companion planting this year. Some of it worked, some didn't. The one thing she did regret was planting Mullein last year. We found that it somehow invites squash bugs to the garden and we've been battling those little bastages ever since with diatomaceous earth. As much as I love Zucchini and other squashes, we'll have to stop growing those for a couple years just to discourage the pests from sticking around. My wife finds that gardening is a constant experiment, especially when having to adjust for warmer temps and fewer pollinators.
Indeed, gardening is ever-evolving. It's been particularly disheartening this year because it seems everything we've broken our bodies over is not working. Especially the plants and seeds we've spent hundreds of dollars on. Jeff has an Amazon addiction that's hard to kick and the bulb/seed catalogs are relentless. We tried transplanting the lavender (after I just read an article about NOT doing that) and of course they died. sigh
I’m wondering if it might behoove us to adopt and use gardening techniques that can counter some of this. Deb uses hand pollination for alot of her plants now as well as letting pseudo-pollinators (Is that the right term?) like wasps and flies in the garden. We are also looking into setting up a cistern based watering system- despite the foolish rules in Vancouver about such things. If set up properly there’s little worry of creating mosquito hazards.
We have lots of pollinators; this year though we've what is called a "short bloom." Snow in late spring and mid-June cuts everything back to nothing. Our usually robust Russian sage just started blooming and the bees that haven't died of starvation are finding it. Jeff's hive absconded sometime last winter: packed up all their honey an brood and took off for Cabo. The remaining bees have been subsisting on Jeff's sugar water, but he's thinking all of his hive bees have died and he's actually feeding the neighbors' bees. So be it! hahahaha As for water, we're on our own well. We do have to be cognizant of our well drying up, but we're careful about household usage. During the hot months, we water every morning from 7a.m. on. He'll deep water (half hour) his potatoes and onions once a week. The rest of the acre, most of it in fact, is on its own.
Oh Sue, beautiful pictures and words - such a lovely post!
I've often heard it said that people moving to a new house with a garden should simply observe the garden for a whole year first before they dig anything up or plant anything new. Soon after I'd moved I spotted a little green something growing where I wasn't sure I wanted anything to be growing - but I left it alone, and became fascinated by what it might become.
It turned out to be a star of Bethlehem - although Google tells me they're prolific and invasive, I'd never knowingly met one before, nor have I seen one since. It didn't spread, actually - it was just the one, it seems - but I'm so glad I'd left it.
A woman after my same heart. Isn't is fascinating to watch the mystery plants reveal themselves. Kind of like watching people come to being. Going through my photos, I found a plant that resembled the primrose, but it had a slightly different leaf and a little star-shaped white blossom. I wonder now if that was a Star of Bethlehem. Also, we tried planting roses and other things on the opposite side of that trellis from the wisteria and they always died. Then the asters took over. Those things will grow anywhere and what a joy they are in autumn. Thank you, Rebecca. I really enjoy your comments and your support. Glad that my stories make you happy.
Oh, I love that your asters colonised where the roses didn’t - isn’t nature amazing?!
It certainly is, and it's kind of nice to learn how to cooperate with Nature rather than contend with it.
I love your garden, Sue!
Thank you, Portia. It keeps us busy.
The most pleasant kind of busy.