Garden Update | June 2020
I wasn’t sure I would write a June garden update. It’s been so hot here in upstate SC, and at 9 months pregnant I just didn’t want to spend much time outside. It feels like not a lot newsworthy happened in the garden, but sometimes that’s just as much worth noting as the dramatic stuff. Our son, Raife Ackerley, was born on June 28th and we are suddenly completely absorbed with a) how much we love him - and b) figuring out how to keep him alive. Growth and progress tick along unerringly, in some seasons or arenas of life more obviously than others. So here are just a few small garden updates:
The First Eggs! | Brian discovered our first chicken egg on the morning the 27th. The egg turned out to be the first exciting event of several. Early afternoon we delivered my next to last wedding cake ever, a giant beauty weighing in at over 60 lb. Later the same afternoon, we checked into the hospital to confirm that my water had broken, and we were on our way to meeting our son. In the last week, four other chickens have started laying for a total of 5 out of 8 so far. It happened a month earlier than we’d guessed they might start laying, so we’re taking it to me mean that they are exceptionally happy in their rolling palace.
Potting Shed Roof | The outbuilding that we use as a potting shed used to be a carport, and the roof has leaked ever since we moved in. We couldn’t use the back portion and the wasted space and wet floor always bothered us (Brian especially!) So two weeks ago, he decided to put on a metal roof. The building is not a structure we plan keep permanently (hopefully a greenhouse/potting combination will take its place someday!) so it wasn’t worth the effort to remove the old roof. The metal just went on top and voila, no more leaks. It actually looks super slick from above, which is unfortunately only a view that the birds get to enjoy.
Cast Iron Sink / Water Collection Part 1 | My parents recently gave us an old free-standing double-basin cast iron sink from the 50s after renovating their laundry room. It’s a bit gnarled and weathered and absolutely the perfect thing to go in the now rain-proof potting shed. The primary question involved how to get water to it. We’ve been wanting to begin capturing rainwater runoff from our roof surfaces, and collecting water off the potting shed into an old pickle barrel is our first experiment. The pickle barrel will supply water to the sink, and any grey water will exit into a nearby flower bed.
Foliage & Filler Seedlings | My sister-in-law Katelyn is a florist and just moved into a new studio space. I sowed a final wave of foliage and filler seeds before taking a break from seed starting for the rest of the summer. Among the selection are red hibiscus, purple basil, and a couple of ornamental grass and amaranth varieties. I’ll keep a few of each to test grow here, but most of them will live in a bed outside the studio. They should go out in the next week or so and be in their prime by late summer.
Good Bugs, Bad Bugs | Earlier in this series, I promised updates on the natural garlic mosquito spray that we’ve been using. The short answer so far is that it’s helping some, but it’s not as effective as the natural option we were paying a company to come spray last year. I’m not sure if partly that’s due to having so much rain early on in the season that we didn’t even start spraying until some mosquito populations were already in play, or if the garlic is naturally just a less rigid control measure. Either way, I think next year we might try a hybrid approach. We’re not sure if it’s related, but this year for the first time we’ve notice tons of fireflies. Looking out at dusk and seeing those blinking golden lights brings back memories of happy summer nights as a child. In general we’ve just noticed more insects than ever this year, most of them beneficial. Butterflies, moths, bees galore, and even the occasional dragonfly. There are multiple factors at play, of course, but we wonder if along with planting even more this year, the increase in insects is related to us not spraying anything but garlic. We’re playing a long-term game of figuring out a good strategy and balance between being able to enjoy being outside ourselves and entertain outside (not being swarmed by mosquitos) and protecting all the other insects that find habitat with us. This summer has also brought with it a Japanese beetle problem. I promise you, plant roses and they will just appear. They’ll appear suddenly all over your beautiful rose blooms, chomping through them and copulating at a very alarming rate. Brian has started a nightly regimen of capturing them in a small jar, shaking it vigorously, and while the beetles are stunned, dumping them onto the ground in the chicken coop, whereupon they are instantly devoured. It’s a satisfying way to deal with such a nasty pest without resorting to chemical intervention.
General Garden Health Update | The veggies inside the cutting garden have generally been slow to grow and a little disappointing, I think because we’re trying not to water as often this season and after an extremely wet spring, we’ve entered a dry spell. The shrubs, perennial plants, and flowers in the area don’t need as much, and once we build potager beds in the courtyard, the cutting garden will be all flowers and we can really pamper the veggies without wasting extra on the hardier plants. We’re also only on year two of amending the soil in this area, and continuous improvement every year will help the soil hold onto moisture. Building soil is a process, and recently I’ve been reading more about Charles Dowding and the no dig method. I’m essentially already employing this strategy, but it’s encouraging to see his beds thriving with gorgeous soil after repeated years of top-dressing seasonally with rich compost. We have been harvesting tomatoes for a few weeks now, we have a few beans, and some okra, eggplant, and peppers are on their way.
Plans for New Veggie Bed | So far, we haven’t tried growing any crops that take up a lot of space: think corn, potatoes, melons and most types of squash. We have an area of our parking court that has been occupied with a camper for almost two years, and that camper will shortly be sold. The spot gets great sun, and since we haven’t missed the space, we want to make the roughly 8’x26’ area into one giant raised bed to test out some of those larger items, including the classic “three sisters” interplanting of corn, beans, and squash.
