Garden ecology

[deborahjross]

I'm not much of a gardener. I once kept some African violets alive for several years by ignoring them except for moments of panic. It's not the recommended treatment, but they seemed to like it. So much of the actual gardening around here falls to Dave. It's his decompression and meditation, plus the occasion for a bit of obsessive knowledge-gathering now and again.

The asparagus has been naturalizing, escaping its nice neat bed and seeding through the lavender patch in one direction and the clover in another. We've long given up any hope of containing the arugula: it's a weed. Ditto purslane. Ditto... I don't know what all else. We regularly have lettuces pop up in odd places and as for parsnips -- Dave decided to plant them in the back alley (communal property but the neighbors don't care if we cultivate it) which is very, very hard-packed. Several years of letting them go to seed later and we have a thousand parsnip plants. We did eventually get rid of the tomatillos, at least I think they're gone. You need 2 plants to make babies and they produce way too many for just the two of us. We gave away dozens of seedlings a couple of years back. A handful of carrots got away from us, meaning we didn't harvest them while they were still tender, so we let them go. now they're 3 feet tall and about to make a gazillion carrot seeds. This bodes well for next spring. That old chard plant over by the grapefruit tree is still alive after 4 years, although so bedraggled I don't have the heart so snip off its few healthy leaves. And the rhubarb got happy and robust this spring, promising a good crop next year.

After some under-the-house proofing, we've settled down to a mutually agreeable relationship with skunks. It turns out that not only do they not wreak great havoc on garden plants but they happily snarf up all the bugs and grubs and things you don't want. We haven't seen gophers for about 4 years, and believe that the skunk-friendly habitat has something to do with it. The one rule is Never Let The Dog Out At Dusk. Ever. No matter what he tells you.

Our garden is also a-buzzing with bees. More honeybees and fewer native bees this year, but all of them in ecstasy over the clover, the lavender, the borage, the blackberry flowers. We planted bee-balm and it should bloom soon. As a consequence of some or all of these measures, our garden is also teeming with lady-bugs (many of them in pairs in, er, compromising positions, promising even more next season or whenever they next hatch). They're after the aphids which are after the... you get the picture.

We're all connected, aphids and lavender and skunks. And spiders and garter snakes and screech owls (wonderful sound at night) and the nest of stellar's jays on top of the ladder leaning against the house.

Comments

[davetrow.livejournal.com]

Tomatillos are still coming up all over the place, and I relented and put a pair in an out of the way place. We've got random garlic, too. And potatoes that won't go away.

There are also some broccoli coming up, but I think it will get too hot for them soon. Oh, and the scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) that I didn't realize was a perennial until I dug up the tuber. It accepted my apology (replanting) and is now happily sending up shoots.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

I hadn't noticed the broccoli, but the cauliflower doesn't seem to be doing much except producing really, really big leaves.

Perennial potatoes! Let's hope they're bigger than pea-sized. It's hard to scrub them when they're that tiny.

[paper-birch.livejournal.com]

Mmm, I loved our tomatillos, back when we had a garden. We're surrounded by giant pines, who spend ever year getting more and more giant. This means that we no longer have consistent sun in the garden area after mid-July, and climate dictates that most plants aren't safe going in until late May. Not much of a growing season.

So, no real food for us, aside from violets and clover and stinging nettles. The flip side is that we have a spectacular butterfly haven of goldenrod and asters. In one area we also leave the grass to grow waist-high. In exchange, a pair of indigo buntings spend their summer mornings there every year.

There is much to be said in favor of letting everything run a little wild.... :)

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

In the past, we've let the tomatillos ripen until they're light yellow and slice them in salads. Alas, Dave does not care for salsa verde.

OOoh, to butterfly havens! When we were in Victoria BC some years ago, we spent an afternoon at the butterfly gardens - magical! The Monarchs come through Santa Cruz in early spring, thousands of them resting in a grove of eucalyptus, with that eerie velvety silence.

[meirwen.livejournal.com]

My dramatic reading of this post left my friend in stitches. What a wonderful way to end my night. Thank you.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Pleasures shared are multiplied!