I recently went to Home Depot to replace two broken rakes and passed right by the seed selection display and the live plant section. But the seed of thought got into my brain that it’s time to start plotting my planting.
My backyard has oak trees and a giant non-fruiting mulberry tree. They don’t allow much sunshine for the vegetables to grow. Planning is crucial to get anything to grow. Basil and romaine lettuce have been winners but I’m stuck on what else to plant. I began to grow romaine lettuce in 2019 when the CDC and the FDA warned against eating or selling any grown in Salinas, California growing area due to outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7.
I continued to grow my own lettuce, as the lack of direct sunlight in my raised garden beds is perfect for growing it. Not so much for tomatoes and last year my zucchini and yellow squash plants flourished but produced zip. I think it was because the starts I planted were all male plants. Is that possible? Also the roly-poly bugs and stink bugs feasted on the leaves turning them into lace, not chlorophyll.
This year I’ll also use a natural way to get rid of the feasting insects, rather than use Diatomaceous Earth, which I mistakenly inhaled and coughed myself into Bronchitis!
My friend Mabel told me about her gardening plans. “This year I’m going to go big because our new place has inexpensive water. We’ll do tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and carrots. We already have the drip irrigation and timers from the last house we lived in but we only had a garden for one of the six years we lived there. We set it up the first year and enthusiastically planted. Then we got the water bill; $150 for one month. I had $50 dollar tomatoes! After that, we just went to the farmers market. At our new house we have a flat rate for water so the garden is going to be awesome this year.”
Neighbor Marcella said, “I haven’t started planning yet, except that my next step is to start amending the soil. I picked up a little booklet over the weekend about how best to do that and I’m about to start reading a book by a famous gardener, John Jeavons, titled “‘How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible.’” That’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I figure this is a good year to get serious about it, given what the next four years is likely to do to the economy.”
Marcella‘s mother told me, “I have a big garden. I planted kale, lettuce, broccoli, onions, etc. in September for fall/winter. Planting for summer (tomatoes, peppers, etc) will happen in May or June. I’ll start the seeds indoors in April.”
She also said she’s going to give starts to her daughter and offered some for me. This is the awesome woman who helped get the three abandoned kittens (that Marcella and I fed) spayed and neutered through Mendo Shelter Pets Rescue, which helped get them adopted.
I’m thinking I’ll take Marcella’s lead and amend the soil in my garden boxes. I normally do that but this year, with my front yard azalea tree blooming and my iris popping up along with the other bulb plants, I was ready to jump in the dirt and make the veggie garden happen.
What’s a girl to do?…make a plan, see if I can get the mulberry tree trimmed, and if not, just grow basil and lettuce.
Suggestions anyone?
Lucy Llewellyn Byard welcomes comments and shares. To contact her, email lucywgtd@gmail.com
