Growing Grapes And Being The Best
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I added grapes to the garden this year.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby has always wanted to grow them so we’re making that dream come true. (smiles)
There are a lot of guidelines and ‘rules’ around growing grapes. The grower must have a certain trellis. They must prune the vines a certain way. They must protect the grape plants from the cold or the heat or drought or too much rain or…
These rules were off-putting and they were why we delayed getting grapes for so long.
But then I watched a video in which the gardener said he basically allowed his grapes to run a bit wild. He said he grows them to have a few grapes to eat and doesn’t mind if they have variable flavor and/or sweetness.
This changed everything.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I also don’t care if our grapes have variable flavor and/or sweetness.
We’re not growing these grapes for wine.
We’re growing them for eating (eventually. It will be years before we get any grapes to do this.). Maybe if we have a lot of grapes, we might juice some, make a glass of grape juice for the Dear Wonderful Hubby.
We realized we didn’t need to be ‘perfect’ at growing grapes. We could merely do what we reasonably do
Being the best isn’t necessary. This applies to almost every field but especially gardening.
We do what we can reasonably do.
And we try to have some fun while doing it.
(smiles)
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Sharing The Harvest
We’ve been picking tomatoes and beans and cucumbers and other offerings from the plants.
Some offerings have been accepted by the Mafia Squirrels, birds, insects and other creatures.
And that’s okay. It is their backyard also. They don’t have the access to grocery stores like we do.
And the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I ensure we plant enough to be able to share.
(smiles)
We’re part of nature. We’re not competing against it.
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Harvest Early. Harvest Often
One of a plant’s primary goals is to reproduce.
When we harvest early, picking fruit and vegetables when they’re edible but before they can produce mature seeds, many plants, like zucchini/courgettes, beans, tomatoes, hurry to produce more fruits and vegetables.
We often get a bigger harvest!
And that harvest is spaced out a bit. So we can better enjoy and/or preserve it!
(smiles)
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Plant More Seeds
I know. I know. You’re all gardened out. You want to start packing the garden up for the year.
It’s too early for that, my friends.
(smiles)
There’s still time to plant seeds, even in Canada, to get an additional harvest from fast growing vegetables like radish, bok choy and lettuce.
And these plants will keep the soil covered. Planting them will benefit your garden next year.
Let’s go!
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Favorite Gardening Terms
This year, the Dear Wonderful Hubby learned the term
tickling the roots
and he was utterly enchanted. Every time, we transplant something, he reminds me to ‘tickle the roots.’
(grins)
Tickling the roots is when gardeners gently agitate the roots of a root bound plant before transplanting it. It supposedly ‘tells’ the plant that it is in a new place and they should send out roots to explore it.
My favorite gardening term is
volunteers.
This is when a much wanted plant grows in a place we didn’t plant it (often around where last season’s parent plant went to seed). They are ‘volunteering’ for gardening service, which I think is such a happy phrase.
(smiles)
What is your favorite gardening term?
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Attending Gardening Events
Gardeners wake up early.
We kind of have to do that. Because, in a slug-infested area, early morning, right before the sun’s rays hit the plants, is the absolute best time for general watering.
I also do an early morning garden patrol to ensure critters haven’t dug up plants during the evening, night or early morning. If they have, I stick the plants back in the ground and these plants MIGHT survive.
Many gardeners also like to care for their plants before they trek off to day jobs. Tasks get completed and we have a few moments of Zen in the morning.
So if you’re attending gardening events, say a plant sale or seed swap, know that most of the gardeners will be there super early in the event’s time frame. That’s when you’ll have the best choice and it is when you’ll meet the most people.
(smiles)
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Gardening – Make It Sow…Again
It is well over the midway point of the gardening season in North America.
Some crops are being harvested. The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I, for example, harvested the broad/fava beans this week. That bit of the garden is now open for another planting.
And we DO have time for another planting.
We can’t overwinter crops like kale and other cold hardy vegetables, which would be ideal for the second planting. We receive too much snow for that awesome strategy.
But we can sow seeds for fast growing vegetables like lettuce or pak/bok choi or chinese/napa cabbage.
And that is exactly what we’re doing. We’re flipping the bed and hope to get one more harvest.
(smiles)
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Enjoy Your Garden
It is roughly mid way through our summer. The vegetable garden is very green. Flowers are blooming. A little bit of food is being harvested every day.
It is tempting to spend every moment tending to the garden, sowing seeds, weeding, worrying about underperforming plants.
Ensure you take some time every day to simply enjoy the garden.
Listen to the bees buzz. Watch the butterflies flutter around the space. Smell the air. Touch some leaves.
You built a little paradise for yourself. Savor it, my friend.
(smiles)
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Gardening – Perennials And Compost
I’m very much a lazy gardener. (grins) So the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I plant a couple more perennial vegetables or fruits/berries every year.
One of the (many) benefits of perennials is
they don’t need as much compost or fertilizer.
Perennials usually have deep roots. They can draw up nutrients and minerals from deep within the ground…like trees do.
And they aren’t growing from nothing every year. Even if the vegetation dies back over a snowy cold winter, the root system remains.
We can save our precious compost for annual vegetables or newly planted perennials.
(smiles)
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Gardening – Decreasing The Need To Water A Garden
Water is one of the most precious resources on Earth. We, humans, are mostly water. All life on this planet needs water to survive.
Our plants need water also.
But there are ways to decrease the need to water our plants.
Organic matter in or on the soil is one of the best ways. Adding 1% more organic matter will increase water retention by 1%. Less water runs off and you need to water less often.
Organic matter, used as mulch, slows evaporation of this water. It also cools the soil.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I use leaves as mulch. And we stack leaves knee-high on garden beds in Fall/Autumn to break down over the winter. This is easy peasy to do. Leaves are plentiful. And it is no financial cost. Leaves are everywhere. (smiles)
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