Garden Update: Vertical Gardening, Paths, Beds and Shoes!

Hello from steamy Kalamazoo, where the sweet potato vines are happy, and the lettuce — not so much. It’s hot and humid and will continue so for days. Our cool, rainy Spring gave way very fast to Summer. I hope some of those cool weather crops make it through this week without bolting. Arugula, spinach and lettuce, I’m talkin’ to you! Hang in there — cooler temps await.

The past few days brought another upgrade to the gardens, along with full acceptance that I really do have two, totally separate gardens. The front yard features lots of ornamentals and bulbs, plus perennial herbs, garlic, and pollinator flowers that reseed themselves each year. While I grow a few standard edibles up front, a persistent groundhog issue, deer, bunnies, and the desire for an attractive front lawn keep things in check. I added another Big Bag Bed Mini (24″ diameter) so I could have just a little more space for wildflowers and an occasional food crop. You can see the blank round canvas above the tulips in this photo:

The front garden also got an upgrade of new garden shoes. I have garden clogs by our sliding glass door for the backyard, but I’ve been using rubber boots or regular shoes up front. The boots get hot, and getting mud and water on regular shoes isn’t the best long term use of them. On Monday, a divinely directed wild goose chase led me to these lovelies while out running errands:

The main upgrades occurred in the backyard garden, with a new Big Bag Bed Jr. (36″ diameter) by the 48″ one, and another Big Bag Bed Mini added to the ornamental raised bed that came with the house:

The decorative white trellis stands in the 48″ bed, and you can just see the new 36″ bed with a Space Needle shaped black trellis in front of the older bed. David also added the same critter fencing around those that I have around the Garden Tower Cage. The back bed holds Fall planted garlic, mustard greens and newly planted sweet potato slips that will hopefully climb the trellis. The new 36″ bed holds butternut squash starts and newly planted purple Thai yard long beans — a favorite I grew in Goshen. Those should also climb the trellises, provided the fencing keeps critters from ripping out the sprouts. (I took these photos in the morning, but that area gets direct sun from late morning to late afternoon.)

I also added black wrought iron looking trellises and a green tomato cage to the trough bed we installed last Fall. Those trellises will hopefully hold peas, cucumbers and more purple Thai yard long beans. Tucked among the tomato, peas and cucumbers is a zucchini start I got last weekend. I’m OK if it’s only moderately productive. I love zucchini, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Someone in Goshen used to joke, “If you need to buy your own zucchini in the summer, then you don’t have any friends.” Gardeners are well known for overloading neighbors with bumper crops of zucchini when the freezer’s full and the taste buds are done!

Below, in the center front, you can see the mini bed with a trellis to support a container friendly tomato plant, alongside sweet red pepper and basil. To the left front corner, you can just make out one of five round stepping stones I added to this bed so that I can walk around it without compressing the soil too much. I added wildflower seeds, amaranth and sunflowers to this bed, so it will need occasional maintenance beyond what I’ve done since 2017. Assuming critters allow the peas to grow up the trellis and the sunflowers to grow beyond delicious sprouts, the central back area will get extra colorful later this Summer and Fall.

David put up the mesh cage — in its third year of service — around the Garden Tower:

The lower fencing and D-ring gate, plus the mesh cage form the best critter and cabbage moth repellent I’ve come across. The Garden Tower allows 72+ plants in a 4’x4′ space. It’s been a slow year for plants I started from seed, due to lots of cold, rainy weather until the temps shot up to the 80’s. I may end up purchasing more plant starts. Once this thing gets going, it’s very productive — a great way to grow food in a very small space.

Some years I feel so inspired to tend indoor seedlings. I use grow lights and larger soil cells. 2022 wasn’t one of those years. I started a bunch in little Jiffy pellets and just let them grow by our North facing sliding glass door. Not ideal — but I just didn’t feel like setting up a whole plant station in the basement. Things are growing, especially since the sun came out, but I put my main focus elsewhere this year. You can’t do EVERYTHING well ALL the time with gardening. There’s no shame in purchasing plant starts from a local nursery, health food store or farmers market. You don’t get as much selection of specific varieties, but sometimes you get healthier, stronger plants.

Gardening is highly variable. Go with what works for you in any given season, given your own needs, desires and other obligations. It’s more fun and productive to start small and build up your successes rather than add too much too soon. There’s a learning curve, and it helps to know your climate, hardiness growing zone, your growing space, light, shadow, critters and other things. Little by little, you can add to successes and minimize frustration.

This year’s focus seems to be about expanding the garden in a sustainable and enjoyable way. Once I filled the additional beds last Fall and this Spring, I realized it’s not much more work to grow a lot more food. I duplicated frequently used tools and plant nutrients, and I store one set in the shed and one in the garage. This might seem unnecessary, but it really makes things easier. I’m more likely to do a quick chore if the tool’s right nearby than if I need to go inside the house, take off my shoes, walk across white carpet and then go to the garage or backyard while putting on shoes again.

When I did my permaculture design certification course, we learned about different zones. You want the most frequently harvested, highest maintenance things closest to your door. If you need to walk far, you’re less likely to spend as much time tending, harvesting and enjoying the garden. I spend a LOT of time gardening. I enjoy it … but I’m also a lazy gardener. I like maximum yield and beauty for minimal work. If it’s above 90 degrees and humid and I forgot a tool in the garage, there’s a high likelihood I’ll just stay in the air conditioned house instead of grabbing that tool and going back outside. I’m much more of a lettuce plant than a sweet potato! I don’t like the heat, and my fair skin doesn’t like much sun.

In addition to duplicate tools and shoes in easy to grab locations, I’ve really enjoyed upgrading my gardening clothes. I don’t mean high fashion togs. I mean high function: wide brimmed hats with lanyards to hold them on, sunglasses that don’t slip down my nose, SPF clothing that breathes well and covers my hands, fire hose pants that can handle all sorts of dirt on my knees without rips or stains. I find the SPF clothing much easier than slathering on sunscreen that gets in my hair and makes me feel sweaty and gross before I even start moving around in the heat.

Your mileage may vary. The takeaway point is to find what works for you. Those little delights and irritations add up. Indulge yourself with things that work, and minimize the things that don’t. Then everything becomes so much more enjoyable!

Even if gardening for you means a pot of herbs on the windowsill or helping a neighbor for an afternoon in exchange for produce, there’s nothing quite like fresh, just harvested goodness filled with life force energy. Despite the slow growing seedlings, I’ve still managed to harvest a lot of microgreens as I thinned out arugula, kale and mustard greens. Many herbs are already producing, and the flowers fill my soul.

If gardening’s not your thing, no worries. Find something that is. In these wild, precarious times, the more beauty, harmony and abundance we create in and around us, the more that radiates into the world. The more we radiate, the more things reverberate back to us. Get into a positive feedback loop — whatever that means to you.

Blessings abound for those with grateful hearts and eyes to see!