Gardening And When Are Perennials Perennial
I haven’t given you an update on the lovage, French sorrel, good king henry and other new perennial additions to the Dear Wonderful Hubby’s and my garden because…
Well… I never know if a perennial has truly taken, becoming perennial until it has survived a Canadian Winter.
Just about any plant, including annuals, do well during a Canadian Summer. It is the Winter that is the true test if a perennial has taken or not.
So yes, the new perennials look like they are doing well. (knock on wood) But I’ll only know if they are truly doing well once Spring 2027 hits.
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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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Perennials Take Time And Care
(This is a stock photo. Our plants aren’t as pretty. – grins)
I sowed a gazillion Good King Henry seeds (Good King Henry is a perennial spinach substitute).
Only 3 of those seeds sprouted.
But 3 seedlings are all we need and all that plant needs to reproduce.
Because it is a perennial vegetable that lives for 20 years or so.
Those 3 plants over 20 years could create 180 new plants. Those 180 new plants could also each create 3 new plants a year.
So the poor germination and the time and the work it takes to get those 3 seedlings to maturity are worth it to us.
This high level of care perennials need is why many experts suggest only adding 3 new perennials to our gardens every year. They need babying and fussing over. They need our time. And our time is limited.
Perennials are an investment but they are SO worth it!
(smiles)
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Gardening And The Circle Of Life
Nongardeners often tell me that “Gardening must be SO relaxing.”
It can be relaxing.
It can also be extremely stressful.
Because plants, like any living thing, are part of the circle of life. They are born. They live.
They die.
At all different stages.
Some seeds don’t germinate. (I sow extra for this reason.) They die or have died before they sprout.
Some seedlings don’t make it past the first week (or the first month or…). You, as their gardener, could be doing everything right. And they will still die. They simply aren’t viable plants.
Some seedlings die after they’ve been transplanted into the garden. They don’t have the strength to deal with the outside elements.
Or they are eaten by slugs. Or they are attacked by flea beetles. Or hail takes them out. Or…or…or…
In the places where we have winter, almost all of our beloved outside plants die after that first hard frost.
Death is part of gardening. It isn’t a happy part. But it is an unavoidable part.
I mourn the death for a day. Then I plant another seed or transplant another seedling, filling the gap, giving that plant a chance at life.
And the circle of life continues.
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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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Gardening – Lovage – A Possible New Perennial
Every year, the Dear Wonderful Hubby and I strive to add one perennial to our gardens.
Last year, it was mint (in containers that we overwinter outside).
This year, it is lovage.
This is a new-to-me herb.
It supposedly tastes like celery, which intrigues me as we use a lot of celery in soups and celery can be challenging to find and expensive to buy in our portion of the universe.
It is also supposedly okay with the cold, is rodent resistant (hopefully this includes squirrels), and once established, it doesn’t require a lot of water or care.
All these things appealed to me. I’m SUCH a lazy gardener. (grins)
Have you ever grown lovage?
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Garden Layouts Aren’t Set In Stone
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I are investing in quite a few new-to-us perennials this season.
Perennials need a semi-permanent place in the garden (they CAN be moved but it sets back their growth and is a pain in the a$$ to do). Which means we have to rearrange our rather small backyard.
We’re moving the leaf mold cages to the side of the house that gets very little sun and nothing much grows there. This won’t hurt the leaf mold production and it will free up those sunnier spaces for growing vegetables.
(smiles)
Garden layouts aren’t set in stone, my friends.
Well, unless you literally set them in stone. And even those can be changed if you’re very strong and/or have a sledge hammer.
(grins)
Change them when your requirements change.
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Gardening Self-Sufficiency And Time
(This is a stock photo. Our water storage system isn’t as pretty. – grins)
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have a goal to be self-sufficient with our gardening.
Eventually.
If there’s ever a time when we can’t buy or otherwise obtain soil, fertilizer, water, containers and other gardening necessities from others, we want to still be able to grow vegetables and berries.
I hope that day never comes but we’re preparing for it. Just in case.
This preparation takes time. And resources. And expertise.
It isn’t an overnight, install it and be done process.
Making leaf mold, for example, takes at the minimum two years.
My first attempt was a disaster. I didn’t add enough water. The leaves didn’t break down.
I’m trying again and that will take at least another two years.
Putting together a rain water retention system, as another example, takes expertise and money. We’re building this system over time, adding rain barrels and storage containers to it every year.
Building a base of perennial vegetables and berries involves a GREAT deal of learning and babying the plants those first few years and money to buy the seeds/starts. I find we can only add a couple perennials every year to our garden successfully.
Self-sufficiency with gardening isn’t an easy overnight type of thing.
But then gardening isn’t an easy overnight type of thing.
(grins)
We can do this!
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Aerogarden – Week 6
It is week 6 of having the Aerogarden, the mini grow station, and the herbs that germinated are looking great. This includes the Basil I seeded to replace the Thyme that didn’t germinate (and that Aerogarden, keeping their germination guarantee, reimbursed us for).
We are lightly harvesting everything except for the Parsley and the Genovese Basil. Those plants aren’t yet large enough to take leaves from.
The Dear Wonderful Hubby, especially, is loving having a little bit of fresh herbs with each meal.
He was surprised how much he likes the Dill. Previously, he’d only had store-bought fresh Dill and the dried stuff and that doesn’t compare to Dill picked right from a plant.
(smiles)
The Aerogarden is, IMHO, a success!
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