Bev Brown, of Virginia, has been gardening for 40 years. She shares
advice from her years of gardening experiences in her online magazine, 'The
Potting Shed'
http://www.vabch.com/gmb/index.htm.
Bev says, "Gardening has taught me how much we are a part of nature, we don't
control it we merely work within it and we are just a little tiny piece of
a super large puzzle."
How did you first begin
gardening?
I really started gardening at my father's side as a small child.
(He was an excellent gardener. His grandmother taught him to garden.) I can't
remember a time that I did not grow something.
As a newlywed in my first house I decided to have a large vegetable
garden to help offset the food budget. Since it was a new house the builder
just skipped the landscaping so I had everything to do from scratch. I've
just never quit gardening.
What has gardening taught you about yourself?
Have you discovered parts of yourself through gardening?
Gardening has taught me how much we are a part of nature, we don't
control it we merely work within it and we are just a little tiny piece of
a super large puzzle. I can't say it has had any grand sudden impact or been
a source of instantaneous enlightenment. There is positive feeling knowing
that I can be self-sufficient if the food stores suddenly
collapsed.
What parts of me have I discovered . . . oh, my back, my legs and
my arms and just how badly they can hurt after doing things that are best
left for healthy 20 year olds!
For some, gardening is therapy. Is it like
this for you? If so, how?
In the garden I am away from the stress and pressures of daily living.
So to an extent it is a form of therapy if guess. But when I am gardening
for a living or involved in a community project, it is work, so sometimes
it can be the source of stress. Most of the time during mundane garden chores
such as deadheading and weeding I become so focused that the rest of the
world slips away.
What do you grow? Where do you garden? How
many acres do you plant?
At the moment I am living in a historic district of a very old town
in the Tidewater area of Virginia on a very small parcel of land with large
old deciduous trees that shade almost every spot of ground. The front yard
and side yard are raised behind an old brick retaining wall.
When I moved in there was little landscaping. Large old American
boxwoods encircled the house reminiscent of the 1940's foundation plantings.
So I ripped it all out and eliminated the grass. Now I have a garden more
fitting for a 150 year old house. (Plus no more lawn mowing in an area where
the lawn mower had to be lifted up from the sidewalk onto the
lawn.)
The area is filled with perennials, a few annuals, and several flowering
trees and shrubs. The back yard is in semi-deep shade most of the time so
I have no place for vegetables other than a little lettuce, a few culinary
herbs, and some onions.
These are tucked in and around more perennials. I also have a small
pond, one of those plastic tub-like things. It is far enough away from the
house that I do not have a pump or anything running on it. It didn't take
much to get it balanced enough to support a few fish. Nothing exciting just
minnows from the local bait shop. Their whole purpose in life is to eat the
mosquito larva (which they do)and they survive winter and summer - no problem.
There is a small patch of grass 18' x 20' left in the back yard and most
of that will vanish this summer. I just keep expanding my collect of plants
so gradually I weed and compost a little further into the grass.
I have lived where I was able to grow an acre of vegetables and
I processed everything I grew. Then went out to the local pick-your-own fruit
farm and picked a bushel of peaches, strawberries, etc., to provide freshly
frozen fruits and jellies for my family. Then we lived in a townhouse where
all I had was about 4' x 6' of grass and a patio.
Wow, did I do some container gardening. In a way I am glad now that
I do not have an acre of vegetables.
The kids have flown the coop and it is just my husband and I but
I do miss not growing my own fresh vegetables. If I had the sunlight I would
have at least a 3' x 15' raised bed for some intense vegetable gardening.
(But, there is nothing like having a friend that gardens and grows all the
good stuff - including the stuff I con her into growing just for
me!)
What is your favorite thing to grow? Why is
this your favorite?
I don't really have a favorite thing - I guess when something is
blooming and looking absolutely beautiful I will say it is my favorite. I
love peonies and lilacs but that is a sentimental thing only made worse by
the fact that they do not do well in this area. (Although there are some
new hybrids that might be worth trying....)
I love gardenias and I could fill my house with them in bloom but
one good cold winter around here and they are in bad shape. Two bad winters
in a row and they are lost, so sad. The smell of them is so delicious and
the dark green leaves with creamy white flowers are a beautiful sight. I
love my astilbe, hollyhocks, lantana, anemome, heuchera and my water
hyacinth.
What steps do you take to get your garden
ready every year? How do you plan out the garden? Get your soil
ready?
About this time of year I attack my garden with a vengeance. I remove
the old dead stuff and cut down the lantana. I pull the winter weeds and
cope with the dandelions. (Why can't we call them a flower and stop worrying
about them?) I move things around if I feel the need and divide anything
that seems to need it.
I give everything a good layer of compost and then I start looking
for a good source of mulch.
I've used well-rotted peanut hulls, old sawmill shavings and cotton
gin trash. Rarely have I had to buy hardwood mulch. I don't have to do anything
to the soil because I worked hard on incorporating plenty of compost into
this old yard when I converted from lawn to garden. The constant addition
of compost takes care of things including feeding the plants.
What advice do you have for those who want
to start gardening?
Just do it! Start small don't run out and try to do the whole thing
at one time. Do your homework then choose a few things that you really like.
Put your effort into making the bed first, double dig the bed and use lots
of compost. Then chose the flowers, shrubs or vegetables.
Too often new homeowners run out to the nearest garden center and
return with 50 plants and no place to put them and no clue what needs to
be in the shade, sun or requires lots of moisture.
Have the basics like lawn hoses, a sprinkler, and a good spade.
No need to buy expensive tools and heavy tools/equipment can be borrowed
or rented. After a couple of years of gardening they will learn what they
like, what feels good in their hands and what they really need. Then the
more expensive good tools can be purchased.
Do you ever garden with others? If so, how
does it impact your relationships?
Gardening creates its own bond. I work with a lot of people on community
projects. There is nothing like the bond of dirt and sweat. The hardest job
becomes fun when there is a little camaraderie. I have garden friends where
the only common bond is gardening and other friends that are still good friends
outside of the garden.
Gardening is a great equalizer. Snobs don't last long in a garden
especially if there is hard work to be done. Age is another line that seems
to vanish in the garden. Money doesn't make you a better gardener although
it does buy better tools.
What are the joys of
gardening?
The things that I like would probably drive other people nuts. I
love finding a new bug and then discovering what it is, to me that's cool.
Insects are so amazing when you really look at them.
Of course there is that total maternal instinct that kicks in when
you plant a seed or a baby plant and watch it grow and bloom, or bloom and
produce a fruit or vegetable. To know that you have cared and nurtured something
to maturity.
Of course there is nothing like being outside totally alone with
nothing but the garden in front of you and birds singing their hearts out
-probably because I am interfering with their visit to my pond for a quick
drink, squirrels running around the tree trunks and across the limbs
overhead.
It is a total submersion into Nature, the sweet smell of humus,
the green smell of tomato vines, and the heavenly scent of blooms, and the
warmth of the sun against my body.
The really neat thing is going out to my garden with my granddaughter
and teaching her everything I know. She'll be five in a few weeks but she
already knows the names of so many flowers and is learning how to propagate
them. She loves to be in the garden with her grandmother.
What mistakes have you made with your
garden?
You name it, I've made it! I've over-planted, I've under-planted,
I planted my entire vegetable garden in a low spot so when we did have plenty
of rain it flooded and killed half of the garden. I've planted the wrong
plants for this Zone and then watch them die in our warmer wet winters when
what they really needed was a hard freeze and some snow.
I've planted stuff my family would not eat no matter how I tried
to disguise it. I've planted things in the shade of February only to discover
it was full sun in July. The important thing is not to dwell on the mistakes
but to move on and not make the same mistake twice.
We (meaning some fellow gardeners and I ) joke about the difference
between a good gardener and a lousy gardener is that the good gardener will
face up to a mistake and rip it out. If that peachy-pinky flower turns out
to be a loud red-orange and it clashes with that soft pink flower next to
it -well, it's out of there in nothing flat!
Is gardening a spiritual endeavor for you?
If so, how?
Oh, that is stretching it a bit for me. An hour in the garden for
my soul is probably worth several hours in church but one does not replace
one with the other yet what better place to find God than in a
garden.
What books, television programs, videos, magazines
have helped you learn about gardening?
Someone gave me a subscription to Organic Gardening thirty years
ago when they were hardly more than a newspaper. They made me realize that
there was a science to gardening and not something that could be done
successfully without some understanding of the total picture. The most important
thing they taught me was the value of compost.
PBS has some wonderful garden shows i.e.: The Victory Garden. I
would be lost without my reference books, I have a small fortune tied up
in mine. But probably the catalyst that pulled everything together was my
Master Gardening Training through the Virginia Cooperative Extension office
and Virginia Tech.
What challenges does your garden give
you?
Gardening in the shade requires more patience. There are less blooms
so the emphasis has to be on texture. A garden is never stagnant so there
is always something going on or happening and keeping up with that is important.
Also because I converted the lawn to a flower bed I've traded lawn mowing
for weeding.
How do you handle insects and other animals
that might interfere with your garden?
My biggest problem is neighborhood cats that think my yard is a
giant litter box so I must be very careful to always garden with my gloves
and to wash up afterwards. The squirrels are not a big problem except for
their constant burying of pecans. I'm always pulling pecan
seedlings.
The aphids attack occasionally and I just give them a good squirt
with some soapy water. A few Japanese beetles find my camellia and I hand
pick them and send them to their death in a watery bucket. My biggest problem
has been slugs. I show them a little Southern hospitality with a little beer
on a hot night. They can do quite a bit of damage to my hostas and I really
get sick of fighting them.
What have you discovered improves the quality
of your garden?
Compost! Compost! & Compost! Also the more plants the less room
for weeds so I prefer to keep it filled as much as possible.
Does your garden have a theme? A name? Is
it symbolic of something?
Because I am in the historical district I have striven to create
a garden that is representative of the time period. Although the garden is
not filled with heirloom plants it is the overall mood of the period that
I am trying to portray.
How much time do you spend on your garden
each day, or week, or month?
I really don't spend that much time in my own garden. I check it
almost daily and then I do some major weed pulling about every two weeks.
I find working in the heat very difficult and it is often twice as hard after
I have spent the day in someone else's garden.
It probably averages out to less than 4 hours per week but then
I don't attempt to keep my own garden to the pristine standards demanded
of a private estate garden.
What do you think about while you are
gardening?
Usually whatever it is that I am doing. Occasionally an insect will
catch my attention and send me drifting off onto thoughts about its life.
It is a wonderful time to think about problems and work on ways to solve
them.
But if all is quiet and I am totally alone and doing routine weeding
and deadheading, the kind of thing that is done almost without thought -
I will drift into a non-thinking state and that can be a wonderful place
because all the problems of the world are gone even if is only for a moment
to two. |
