A Little Bit of Chaos

The garden got a little over run this past winter. This is not really surprising considering all the other things that were going on in my life. In saying this, however, I would like to point out that gardening does seem to bring out the random in me. I start off with major planning, which then usually disintegrates into 'just put something in the space' through the seasons. I also follow permaculture and organic principles in my gardening, which tend to make for a less tidy space. It is not that you can't have an organic, or permaculture garden that is neat and tidy and all in nice little rows. You can. The thing is, discouraging nasties involves dissuading them from taking up residence. So putting things in long, neat rows is kind of like having a neon MacDonald's sign - "eat here, eat here" it says! They can munch from one end to the other in happy contentment and fatness (I know, that is not really a word, but it does sound so good!). So, I try to deliberately break up plantings. For instance, this year we have tomatoes in 4 different rows, each with something else planted in between. Hopefully if one row gets diseased, we will still eat tomatoes.

I also let things go to seed. This is for the beneficial insects. After all, they do need somewhere inviting in which to take up residence and go to work at culling all the insects I don't want in the garden. This past winter they sure had it good, and not from any of my doing.

The broccoli went to seed. I only managed to get in about 4 plants in early February, which we have concluded was a bit early. Their main heads were very small, and ready before winter, but the interesting thing is that they continued to produce some very tasty, prolific side shoots right through winter. The only issue was that we failed to keep up with cutting and eating them, so they flowered. I am thinking of trying a few again this year to see if we get a similar result because the ones I did eat at the end of winter were delicious.

Seeding plants have a wild beauty all of their own.

Amy

Monday, 18th October, 2010