Garden Practices
I often contemplate my garden practices:
- Are they healthy for the environment, am I being conservative or wasteful?
- Should I expand the vegetable garden, or do I have enough?
This really is the time to journal my thoughts on the subject of gardening and to review the photos I have taken so that I can actually see what my gardens looked like during their blooming season. The photos also help me revisit the locations of my plants:
- Have they performed well in that spot, or do I need to move them in the spring?
- Do I need to check to see when the time is right to move them and follow the practice of "right plant-right spot."
- I think I’ve done pretty well on that score, but sometimes we need to listen to the plant and let it tell us what it needs.
Reflections
Now that I am in the later years of my life, I also have to think of what my capabilities are. I talk to my inner-self and say things like: "You can’t lift 40 lbs. anymore, ask for help when the task is too great," or "Do I really need to do this?"
I also look for or invent ways to lighten the tasks I still desire to accomplish. I make sure my wheelbarrow is in good shape, tires optimal and handles smooth. I sharpen all my tools before packing them away. I plan ahead to have my sanitizing bucket at the ready, so I don’t transport disease all over with a pruning task.
Looking for tools is a drag, so I have placed duplicates in useful places together with other garden utensils. The practice of keeping bags of potting soil and potting materials in the place I will do my March seeding has been very helpful. My basement has now developed into the seed-sowing staging area, together with grow lights, heat mats, timers, watering cans, etc. Just the simple task of keeping things where you will use them or at the ready is so helpful.
Houseplants
During the winter, houseplants become a priority. I worry about the under-performers. I have just decided that if all my care or replanting didn’t do the trick, I can give myself permission to give that plant a compost burial as long as it’s not diseased. If I don’t know, in the trash it goes. I root any dropped violet leaves and succulent leaves. I trim off the spent amaryllis stems and care for them like any other green houseplant. I have had some for many years and enjoy them outdoors in summer as well. I just water and fertilize like all the other plants. I bring them outside when it’s 70 degrees at night.
End of Summer
At the end of summer, I trim, withhold water for forced dormancy, and store in a cool/dark location for 4-6 weeks. After their rest, I re-pot the bulb and start watering. The geraniums are all stored away in the basement, too, out of the light source and not watered. They hold their own quite nicely, albeit looking dead, but they will revive outside in the spring’s warm temperatures and watering routine. My Clivia, also known as Kaffir lily, is another houseplant that goes outside in the summer, but for now, I water sparingly indoors.
Now, it’s time to review those seed catalogs and native plant books and read those gift books - Garden Wisdom 365 Days by Cheryl Wilfong and Mentors in the Garden of Life by Colleen Plimpton.
To all my gardening friends, happy winter rest and reflection!