Growing Season

 

Living in the Mid-Atlantic coastal region has taught me that no two growing seasons are the same. Each year comes in differently making it challenging to gauge by the calendar your garden expectations. I have since abandoned that whole thought/advice of using the various farmers almanacs. They too have been unreliable. Instead I began remembering back to all the words my grandfather often said. Words forgotten and ignored by my parents because running away from farming was more important than hearing his long learned wisdom. Mostly it can be summarized by using phenology. Timing the planting based off of the emergence of regional native plants and bird migration. Relying on eager bulbs that too often can be tricked into blooming with unpredictable warm spells can set you in risky territory with gentler plants. It goes more to keeping track of your trees, peepers, and birds. All this to say I have been embracing more of these natural cues than all the piles of gardening books lurking around my house. What I know is that by the time my peonies have bloomed it’s all clear for planting tomatoes, melons, herbs, and other sensitive vegetables. I have been really behind on planting in general. By now I would have sketched out my ideas. This year has been slow as we have been adjusting to the loss of sunshine in our beds. Those trees have matured and finally given us the shade we want but at the cost of my favored growing spots. Nevertheless rather than lamenting about the lack of orderly plan I am sure to find a way to cram a tomato plant here or there. It’s probably going to be a whimsical effort this year. I do have several volunteer tomatoes from our compost pile. I’ll begin there and see what fun they bring. How has your garden been showing you it’s wonder and beauty?