Planning the Spring Garden, the Summer Garden and the Fall Garden 2021

 All Creation starts with our thoughts and becomes that which we behold.

~Lilac

I know that if I want to make anything happen, I have to start by thinking about it.

When it comes to planning anything around the Homestead, I like to draw it first. I am NO ARTIST...but what I can do is structural outlines. I like to consider things like light, water flow, the feel...the possibilities.

As I started to plot the Spring Gardening projects, I realized that in order to properly plan for Spring....I also needed to think about what comes next.  This year, unlike other years, I have a house, and land and no daytime job.  If I cannot make something happen, then I have wasted my time!

My thoughts started with the seedlings that are sprouting in the kitchen greenhouse.  What was I going to plant in the vegetable garden?  What about the Herb Garden?  What were the challenges last year and how did we overcome them?  What issues did we run into that we still do not have solutions for?  I had a lot of questions.

Watering the back garden was hard.  I gave up the fight last year.

This year I CANNOT GIVE UP.

I really, really want a thriving berry patch.  I know it will take a great deal of work and perseverance to get it there.  You may recall from last week's Homesteading blog that I went back there and Alex and I tidied up and rolled a 2 foot high chicken wire fencing to keep the bunnies out.  In order to make sure that berries can thrive, provided I can get them enough water of course, we will also need to protect them from birds, rabbits and other hungry critters.

Here is a schematic for what I will endeavor towards this year.  Most of the work will happen between mid and late summer....this is when the nourishing and watering will be crucial.  The plants are all very young, highly sensitive.  But we also want to actually see some growth.  In other words, some plants just need time to become mature and others will produce fruit this season.  The way I figure it, STRAWBERRIES can be the crowning glory of the garden.  Now...I personally, cannot eat strawberries.  But here is what is great about growing what I propose for strawberries:

1.  15-30 Strawberry plants can fit in 2 5-tier Planters.  If I choose 6-inch plants from a nursery, plant early July at the latest, we should have an abundance of strawberries in late August.  By late August, the heat has us all feeling fatigued in the garden.  The flowers will be awake and colorful back there since we grow Daffodils in the spring and then Lilies in the Summer and fall.

2.  Strawberries are fun to share, can be frozen easily and are easy to grow and take care of.  

3.  Success.  Is there really a better reason to do it then just for the success of doing it?

Ok, enough about strawberries.  I bought two more additions to the berry patch.  One is very small Loganberry plant who is currently growing on my kitchen windowsill.  This week I will move him to a bigger pot since he has grown a good inch in the past week already.  There is an empty spot in the Berry patch where a blueberry plant was, my husband removed it for some reason (not sure why).  Logan can go there when he's ready.  He can keep Jefferson company (the spotted turtle).  One more COOL addition...and this is not for the faint of heart...Trailing Blackberries!

Blackberries are a sheer delight!  Since I have decided to attempt to grow the Trailing style, I have drawn into my design plans, a Trellis.  The Blackberries can use this trellis to help them stabilize, while also the Trellis will give us a support to drape the netting over.  The netting will help keep birds out of our berry patch.

Trailing blackberries will take a while to mature from seed once I propagate them, and then when they are introduced to the garden, they will need excellent soil and lots of water.  From there, the first year is just about growth-no fruit.  The 2nd year is fruit that dies off fast and then afterwords, I can expect biennial growth (one year on and one year off).  Blackberries are a delight. 

I cannot forget my lovely blueberry bushes that are nothing more than stumps at the moment.  I hope they survived, but we will have to wait until the spring hits us and see what they do.  My raspberries also look very sad out there.  Again, the key this year is water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My back garden is so far from the water source that it takes a LOT of effort to water them.

My husband found me a nice rain barrel.  It's going to be housed in a part of the yard that the hose can reach - and we are going to raise it up higher so we can add an extension hose and allow gravity to do the work from there.  He painted the barrel an attractive purple color.  I will be working to conserve water in any way possible to improve the berry patch this year.

I want to plant some rhubarb back there too...I have a spot picked out for that.  I would also like to add some Juniper bushes.

The Fairy Garden

Many of you already know the story about the magic in the left corner of the yard...the baby bunnies being born there was a wonderful omen for us to make a sacred garden there.  I call it the Fairy Garden.  I like Fairy Lore...I appreciate my garden Fay.  My schematic for the area is shown here:

I need to create an anchoring of the garden by adopting the top corner and making it beautiful, blissful, serene and pretty.

My idea for this is to add soil and make a crude rock wall of bricks (maybe I will paint the bricks)...and plant a 4 foot tree there like some sort of evergreen.

I have two soil patch areas where I like to keep mounds of loose soil for filling things.  Those two mounds of soil lie between two storage space:  One is a 3 foot high wooden shelf.  the other is my Potting shed for storage of tools.  Now...the corner is not easily visible from anywhere until you are actually IN the garden...but the back wall of the Fairy Garden is a fence and is plain to look at.  Right now I have two old cool window frames that my husband found at Brown, leaning against the fence.  Although they are a wonderful size...they are lost against the fence.  And I do not want to anchor them to the fence because they are VERY heavy.

SO I want to showcase them.  But how?

I decided that this might be the perfect opportunity to sacrifice a couple of old Ikea Chairs that I have been hanging onto for YEARS.  I love them because they are straight and cool...like Witchy chairs!  But they are not comfortable for sitting because they are so firm.  I am going to use the chairs to ANCHOR the Frames.  I think black Zip ties will do it.  Then they can be in the same location they are now, but they will be elevated about 15 inches!  Under the chairs, I will create a "floor" of Heather and creeping ivy.  The Ivy can find it's way up the chair legs and up the scroll-work of the window frames.  Ivy is so fast growing...it should be making great progress by July/August.  And if I pre-weather-treat the chairs (they are made of wood), they will last longer.

The Fairy Garden needed a purpose.  I mean yes...we are going to get the little fairy houses and knick knacks and doo-dads.  But I mean a spiritual purpose.

I decided on the addition of a circular flower bed- flowers forming the outer circle (wildflowers), and then inside the circle, at the center, a pentagram stone.  The 5 points of the pentagram represent the 5 important herbs, which will also be planted inside the circle.  So that's it!  That is my plan for the Fairy Garden.  I will add some rocks and other ground cover to give it texture.  But that is pretty ambitious already.

So this week I did a bit of scouting for materials.  I will need a good amount of bricks and some soil.  But also, I need some good sized rocks too.  It turns out there are people who post advertisements on lie to come take rocks from their houses.  Also, my son and I have decided that we will hit the beaches and other places I know of to gather some natural materials. We can load my truck and just bring it home.  A little leg work and we can have some unique spaces to be proud of!

Next week the temps in RI are set to hit the high 50's for a several days.  I will be using that time to the fullest.

The Vegetable Garden

The small, long garden that we used to grow cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes last summer, will be used this summer for Green beans, Peas and Brussel Sprouts.  IF...no guarantees, but IF my husband completes the second half of this garden bed, and puts the arbor up...we can plant more veggies and also enjoy a beautiful pathway from the driveway to the front yard.

However, I am planning for the possibility that we only have the smaller space.  Unlike last summer, Jamie is currently working two jobs!

While shopping around (scouting out stuff), at OceanState Job Lot, I saw what could be a handy short-cut for this year for a Lettuce Bed.

What am I talking about?

Well...I am ready to start growing lettuces and greens but having a useful salad garden of varied greens that continue to produce, you need a garden set up designed for that specifically.  Ideally, I would  Double Dig  an 8 x 8 or a 10 x 10 or such area in a sunny spot. But once again...there are projects going on in other parts of the homestead where I simply cannot commit to anything for my lettuce.  But I am growing some from seed now, so I would like to see what I can make grow.

The items I found were simple plastic snap-together/ 8-inch high "beds". I could place them anywhere temporarily.  The side yard (home to the present veggie garden) will probably have a lot of traffic and also if Jamie gets around to finishing his construction, would be in the way.

I MAY actually try growing them on my front porch....haven't decided yet.

But while planning ahead to summer and Fall, I decided that although it will not be an easy task, I am going to start some sunflowers from seed and then plant them along the front yard South Facing, near the bus stop.  I purchased the metal sticks that help hold flowers with large trunks as they grow taller and stronger.  I am eager to see how they do.  I would like to add some ornamental grasses there too.

Yesterday I found a couple of adorable and curious little additions to the Fairy Garden.  I ordered them from Marketplace sellers and so I should have them in a few weeks.  One is a Lighthouse style Birdhouse and the other is more of a Topiary type design house.

I discovered a good many lovely Fairy Houses and Bird Houses...I chose these because they were a decent bargain for the asking price vs an investment into something that I absolutely loved.

Later in the day I was at Ocean State Job Lot as aforementioned...and I purchased one of those huge round-mouthed pots that is very shallow.  The idea for those pots is to add soil and then build your own Fairy Garden on top.  I would like to do that for a fun hobby project.  I might find some good quality mosses and tiny plants.  Then...when I find a Fairy hut/house that I really love....I will invest.

The Herb Garden

I have already decided that my herb garden needs to be much bigger, offer variety and quantity, and that I need to spend more time caring for it.  This is actually a really tall order.  I placed the herb garden in the front of the house.  I did this because there is great sun there, but also because it's proximity to my kitchen was more convenient than out in the backyard. What I started last year was very haphazard... akin to tossing some seed on shallow soil and hoping for something to grow.

But the new design will take shape as a square.  Inside the square I can use my round design, a tradition of witches I think...but nonetheless, the small fence pieces I found were straight (thus a square).

I started this year's herbs from seed indoors.  I have multiple Sage, Parsley, Basil, Oregano, spearmint and Lavender starting.  I also have some Caraway seed to plant.   The idea is to grow several of the same things so I can come away with a larger quantity of what I love.  So essentially, less variety but greater yields of what I use the most.

The reason I want to do this was to get a big quantity of dried Italian herbs for the winter next year.

Forward Thinking

As I started to project forward to Fall, I see myself still harvesting lettuces.  Maybe the indoor greenhouse will end up on the front porch as a place to manage the sprouting plants and then they get added to the other bed?  Still thinking on this....but then I remembered my excitement about pumpkins.

Last year I planted some in late September.  Temps got cold fast last year.  I would like to try again with pumpkins.  They need a lot of root space.  I am going to use Growing Bags (20-25lb) instead.  I can plant the seeds for pumpkins: anytime between now and July they should get to be about 6 inches.  By summer, most of my flowerbeds are not in bloom except for the leafy parts, such as my Lilac and Hydrangeas and Peonies which come out in Spring.  So I can just add these Growing bags to that sunny garden where they will get watered daily and get great sun.  

With any luck, by Late Summer I will have pumpkins growing and Sunflowers coming to a decent size in the front. I have a vision of a pumpkin patch in my yard.  I can live with a few growing in large bags.

Summary

Spring:  everything that comes up for Spring bloom just needs some vitamin boosts, new mulch and water and sunshine.  I expect Peonies, Lilacs and Hydrangeas to bloom along with Daffodils.  Our Roses will come up in Spring.  Young vegetable plants will go into the Veggie Beds in Spring, around April.

Summer:  Vegetable will mature and we can enjoy fresh Green Beans, peas and Brussels along with a variety of tomatoes and herbs.

Fall:  The Tiger Lillies come out and the Sunflowers should be impressing us by then.  Also, Pumpkins will make me happy.  I am also going to grow some ornamental kale and Chrysanthemums in the ground or in pots.

Thanks for reading!  Stay tuned for my next update on how the GlamSimpleBoutique is doing on Etsy and about the products we are working on!

Namaste~

Lilac