My gardening endeavors feature heavily onto this little spot of the web. Mostly because I use this as a memory to myself of what worked at what didn't. What I loved and what I didn't. What I can look forward to- and what I hopefully do not repeat again.
This years garden situation has been filled with deeps lows of frustration and high levels of love and hope. This sounds like the beginning of an epic love novel! I am so poetic. LOL Anyway- let me refocus back to the garden. To start this year- I was sooooo hopeful and CERTAIN- beyond a shadow of a doubt this was going to be my best garden year EVER. People would stop as they drove by in amazement for this lovely patch of yard.
I began prepping last fall a full 6 months before I planted the first plant- with some top quality manure from a friend's horse barn. I knew this manure was going to be like magic fairy dust. It was going to be so magical- that I would simply just have to sprinkle seeds gently over the soil and plants would grow lush and fertile.
Unfortunately . . . I got a brilliant idea to make the garden even bigger- to have an even larger more magical area and that slowed things down. And the idea was a manual labor nightmare and it took awhile- and I was frustrated that I started the garden later than I planned to- and things weren't perfection.
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This is how it looked after the extension and before the plants grew.
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Once I got everything planted I was back to hopeful. Oh boy the flowers were in!!!!!!!!! The soil was plowed up and fertile. It was going to be AWESOME!!!!
And then it wasn't. The plants grew slowly. The weeds were HORRENDOUS. I could not keep up with them. I kept getting these stupid volunteer pumpkin and Mexican Sunflower plants growing where they were NOT wanted. (several years ago I planted Mexican Sunflowers, and they will never stop growing every damn year- and I haven't planted them since. If they would grow in a specific designated place- fine. Grow. But they refuse. They grow everywhere. They overtake the flowers I very much want. They're a total aggravation. Pretty. But an aggravation.) I had high hopes for Dahlias- my first year ever planting them . . . and they weren't doing anything. I resented every time I went out there to weed.
Then I got a great idea!!! I'll mulch around the plants. So I weeded again. Threw some granular fertilizer out, spread a bunch of mulch and then . . . . watered and watered and watered and watered some more.
Finally things started growing- not great- but they were growing.
Then I had a bug situation. I sprayed everything down with some Neem oil. I've never had a bug situation before- but of course, this year I did.
At this point- it's hot as the hinges (that's a Southern idiom for my non- Southern friends- and pretty much it means. it's real doggone hot). Thanks to my mulch- I didn't really have to weed much. Also it finally was raining a consistently so I didn't have to water either. I was really starting to get some quality flowers.
Here's what I need to remember for next year: I will plant dahlias again. I need to use the netting- which I used- so I won't give that up. If you've ever thought about growing dahlias- from the bulb, perhaps you have noticed how dang expensive those bulbs are. It's kind of surprising. I now realize it's necessary. My mom bought me a few bulbs from flower grower she follows on Instagram and those bulbs are amazing! They have grown into some very bountiful flowers. I get many many flowers from those few bulbs. I will order one or two from him again next year. I rarely feel like spending more money is the right answer- but when it comes to dahlia bulbs- spending the money is the right answer apparently. Get the flowers in the ground a bit earlier than the end of May. Mulch sooner. Water consistently from Day 1. And weed every Mexican Sunflower and pumpkin out savagely- no matter what. Plant regular sunflowers- but do small ones. They're cute and manageable. Do those Oklahoma Zinnias again- they're AWESOME. Do gomphrena again- they're so cute and friendly.
I figure I have about 3 more weeks of the garden left before it starts to turn yuck. I could probably get more- but going back to school really puts a stop to the garden. I went out today and got up the few weeds, sweat, dead headed, sweat, cut a ton of flowers, sweat, fertilized, sweat some more- so hopefully I get another great harvest later this week.
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