| garden: looking back, lessons learnt |
[Sep. 28th, 2007|05:07 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  calm | ] |
When we moved into this rental place the garden was full of weeds. uniformly uncultivated, weeded over and, well, looked quite alright to my untrained eye.
Through the months our fledgling attempts at "gardening" have brought about efforts to weed, "improve" the soil, plant plants we actually choose/use, and compost.
Now that i'm more experienced, read a lot more and discovered more, i now know things differently, things that would have surprised me at the start:
1. Weeds are beneficial as ground cover if you're not planning to cultivate it. Prevents drying out, erosion and some plants add nitrogen back into the soil, which is good for the health of the soil. Such as clover. Or of course, beans, if you're lucky enough to have wild beans growing. HA! No, not a chance.
Lesson learnt: Since we didn't plan or realistically cannot cultivate the whole backyard, which is pretty much one square plot with two side bits on both sides of the brick paved patio, we should not have weeded ALL of it. If I were to do it again, I would probably put planks or some kind of path down and divide the big square into maybe 4 strips, allowing me to work from the paths and not have to step on the cultivated soil, because you want it to be well dug up and aerated and not undo your effort by trampling it all down again.
2. Composting is an art. You can't just chuck any ol' organic matter just like that. It helps if the items are as small as possible (I now chop up my peelings and stuff), and you need a good mixture of "greens" ie fruit/veg peelings and soft bits of plants, and "browns" ie harder stuff, dead leaves, twigs, cardboard, newspaper etc. And it has to be "layered" so that the bigger bits allow air to circulate.
Lesson learnt: I discovered from a wonderful "for-dummies" website that explained the three possible outcomes of new composters. Good compost (what we want), too dry (too much "browns") and sludgy (too much "greens"). Mine had too much "greens", plus after some months in a plastic bin which I did not think to close properly, got filled up with rain water. (Air circulation vs rain collection ah well I'll get it right next time) Meanwhile old twigs and even branches were laying about the back of the garden cos of too enthusiastic pruning of the creepers/neighbour's jasmine bush last summer (it wasn't me) and predictably, they were not simply turning themselves conveniently into lovely crumbly compost. Duh. If I left them there they would sit there indefinitely. So I rearranged the sludge and twigs (small pieces this time) in a nice heap.
Problem is now that it looks ugly. Compost does not look nice until it's done. Right now to the untrained eye it looks like twigs and sludge in a pile. With weeds scattered about from last year's weeding (obviously some bits were done better, these remained empty this year, some parts were not so well done, so they grew back. Ironically I now want them to grow back), it isn't that pretty a sight.
Which leads me to another lesson learnt. Gardening is something for the patient. The fastest result you can have is maybe planting a seed and harvesting something several weeks/months later. (Buying a mature plant from a shop and plonking it in the ground is NOT counted) It's definitely not instant gratification, not if done properly. But efforts accumulate and fruits (in both senses) increase year by year. Yes, I found that timeframe is at shortest, seasons, but more usually, years (one cycle of all seasons). If I were to try and improve the soil, it'll take years to see the result. If I were to plant anything bigger than a shrub, it'll take years to reap the fruit. And if I were to plant anything that harvests quickly, well, next year you'll have to do it all again.
If all goes well, our grandchildren will be able to swing in a hammock from the bay tree and go, "Our ancestors bought it when it was not one foot tall, and look what it's become today!"
3. Type of soil. We have planted and successfully grown all but one (creeping thyme) in the garden, either in pots or in the ground. These include (from most wang4)
i) Lemon
ii) Bay
iii) Purple sage
iv) Lavender
v) Rosemary
vi) Peppers
vii) Parsley (they self seeded! I have new baby parsley plants and I didn't have to do a thing to get them yay!)
viii) Thai chilli - seemed dormant for the longest time after the first season and now looks lots happier in a bigger pot
ix) ... and in their normal lifespan we had lettuces, coriander, basil, lemon basil and dill. And various ornamental flowers.
Lesson learnt: Not everyone likes the popular yummy looking black loamy soil. Some plants actually like lighter soil, and dryer. And it DOES make a difference. Apparently if carrots, for example, are grown in too-rich soil, it'll be deformed. I hope I never prove this right.
Well the garden looks a bit of a mess now cos of the above actions. I've tried to remedy it as much as possible, slowly. When we and the pots are gone, our legacy for the next tenants will be:
a. Better drainage cos we mixed gypsum into the soil
b. A still-maturing compost heap - but at least they don't have to start from scratch
c. Better growing creepers cos of heavy pruning last year
d. Healthy and perennial specimens of rosemary, sage and lavender
e. Moderate weed cover (this spring I'm only pulling out dandelion buds and small, whole dandelion plants)
Well. *frown* I guess that's okay. |
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