The Garden Journal

Dog Gone Alley

Last year the big expansion of the "garden" was the poppy bed on the front of the deck. This year the new flower beds have been in Dog Gone Alley, a double gated entry to my backyard, and dog camp.

It seemed a perfect place to put at least one raised bed for flowers. And as it has better sun for Iris than other locations I decided to make it an Iris bed. To which I add Italian Garlic (garlic has gotten lost in my hoop house) and most recently globe thistle.

That left me with the other side of the walkway through Dog Gone Alley. I resisted doing another raised bed and instead yesterday went for the natural sowing method often used for wild flowers. I scattered seeds of Mexican Hat over the varied low vegetation (dandelions and a couple other creeping weeds) topped with potting soil and then mulched with straw. I also mulched the other side.

And while I still had lots of mulching straw in the bag I bought (I bought two so much more to mulch) I mulched the garlic and asparagus bed which I need to apply soil rebuilder to. Can you put that on top of biodegradable mulch? The soil rebuilders still have to be added to the raised beds in the hoop house and then mulch.

Did I mention I am not a gardener. Mother, who was a gardener, said I had a brown thumb. Potted house plants which I have kept alive are ones which thrive on neglect. The same seems to hold true for my outside flower beds. Poppies and Hollyhocks grow like weeds. And the only bushes on the property which have made through at least two years are gooseberries, current, and Canadian Choke Cherry which can all be classified as weeds.

Gardening, even in the hoop house, seems to be trial and error. What doesn't work I don't plant again. I have amazing luck with greens of all types. And beyond garlic and onions not so much luck with root crops. I have a garden journal where I keep notes on what fails and what succeeds. This year's big new success was sunflowers. I may have to give them their own bed next year though they shared well with the poppies. And yarrow. Really love yarrow because it grows anywhere.

October 6th was our first hard freeze. Last year it was September 21st so NOAA was right about an extended summer. Now begins the planning for next season. I am a seed hoarder basically because I believe on some level they won't always be available. I began gardening to raise lettuce because my little neighborhood store only carried iceberg which I don't consider food. They carry a larger variety now but in those plastic containers which always seem to have some don't buy scare going on.

And there is the end of the world as we know it which seems all that more likely these days. So even my garden journal is on paper unlike this blog. And as winter closes in I will begin my planning of the garden of 2019 based on the successes and failures of this last year. 

Note to self: The plastic row markers to not hold the sharpie ink as they should.  And find more flowers that are also edible.