Celebrate the Great Outdoors: Working with Nature

Create Your Own Oasis!

Rising food prices have many of us considering a vegetable garden to reduce expenses. Others may just be settling into a new home and want to customize their space. No matter the reason for your interest in a garden, the tips below can make the process more enjoyable.

Track Sun and Shade

Before you start digging, carefully check where the sun and shade falls on your yard. Sun-loving plants need a space with plenty of access to the sky. If your yard is really shady, you may want to put your favorite sun-worshippers in a pot so you can move it around the yard until it finds a spot where it can thrive.

Shade-loving plants are also fussy. Depending on the depth of the roots of your trees, you may be able to start shade-loving flowers around the base of an older, established tree. Avoid crowding young trees; as the tree grows, your plantings may contribute to root rot.

Watch How Water Travels

Put on your raincoat and walk around your home when it’s raining hard and there is no lightning. Ask yourself

• Where does water drain?
• Is water draining against my foundation or away?
• Is water pooling anywhere in my yard?

If water stands in spots in your yard, you can either use those spots to put in very thirsty plants or a drain field of gravel and sand. For example, a wet spot in your yard can be a great spot for a willow tree. If you already have trees in a damp spot, you have an ideal spot for reeds and ferns. Bamboo can thrive in damp soil; consider putting in a root containment edging to keep bamboo from taking over an area unless you want a vegetation privacy screen.

Consider Hours of Daylight

It’s easy to get excited on the first day of spring and try to plant all your favorites. However, many flowering plants and vegetables really need a specific number of daylight hours to thrive. If tomatoes are your very favorite, do your best to not plant them too early. You may get a few tomatoes off the plant you put in the ground in March in the Midwest, but the ones you plant in late April will provide a much more abundant crop.

Noting the hours of daylight can also reduce your risk of pests. For example, many squash plants are vulnerable to vine borers. These pests dig into the stem at the base of the plant and lay their eggs in tender vine. The plant won’t die, but it will not produce any fruit. If the recommended planting date is May 1, wait two weeks. The vine borers will not be able to damage your plants at their regular egg laying time and you should get a decent harvest.

Create a Composting Space

Gardening and amending your soil are both slow processes. Fertilizers and pesticides can work quickly, but if you want healthy soil over the long-term, composting is a terrific option.

Compost that you can tumble will be usable more quickly than compost that you stack and turn. A compost tumbler can be a good investment in a very small yard, but if you have the room and access to plenty of dropped leaves in the fall, a composting trench can be a nice way to slowly amend your soil.

Once you know where some of your garden beds will go, wait for the cool weather in the fall and dig your trench. If you want to edge this bed, fall is a great time. Layer in leaves and other organic material, such as kitchen scraps, then cover it again with more soil. In the spring, consider planting annuals to add color and let the soil break down for a full season. Consider adding pine bark mulch for a quicker breakdown of that buried compost.

Talk to Local Gardeners

If you see a yard that you love, compliment the gardener! If you see them out working, ask if you can help. A neighbor splitting irises or lilies may be happy to give you some new tubers and rhizomes to start your own collection.

Gardening can be so exciting that staying patient can be a real struggle. If at all possible, don’t do a lot of planting in your first year of owning the house. See what comes up, where the sun falls and where the water pools before you start adding a lot of plants.