Garden House

The sweet building you see to the left in the photo above has a limited life span. The siding on the south side is so crumbly a short order cook might want to bread his fish sticks with it. The paint is holding up a fair amount of the building and I don't recall that Sherwin-Williams is considered structural building material.

Emptying a small building you have used for over 12 years is a big task. And a sad one. Even with the wavy chip board floor there is a fondness and a measure of guilt knowing you are about to take to the ground something that would likely stand unaided for another 6-10 years. Paint is strong stuff. Finding a home for the elevendibillion things coming out of the building, to ensure you can find them going forward, is no small challenge. An inventory taken before hand and then notated with a code as to where everything was put should keep me sane. Fingers crossed.

In its place an 8X12 SolarGro greenhouse will rise. To say I am excited about this is the understatement of the year. It is my adult version of a garden playhouse. And being an adult (most of the time) I will pursue adult ventures in my new playhouse. I'll propagate, start seeds earlier than ever, nurse plant divisions, create container plantings that will be lush and full by the time the Great NorthWet weather has prettied up enough to host them, grow a Meyer lemon tree in a ridiculously trimmed shape, have my hoop house inhabitants BIG by the time they're ready to move to said hoop house (can you say "Tomatoes before August?"), have a small table, cozy chair, a folding chair for a guest, little radio, electric kettle and a stash of tea. Oh, a candle too and a couple of eclectic wine glasses that are waiting for me at Good Will. Kids are welcome into my adult playhouse. I can make hot chocolate with that kettle and share the joys of growing.

The Garden as Therapy

I've always known it was true. Gardening is therapeutic. It's more than the fresh air, the smell of rich soil and rare February sunshine; It's soothing, creating order out of that which has its own mind be it weeds or slugs, it's, why it's Control. Are you laughing? That's OK. The therapeutic effect of having control over 2, 20 or 200 square feet of earth at a go, if only for the moments you're working on it, rocks my world. The Garden is my domain. I have no control over anything else. The minute I get the laundry done, someone throws a sock in the basket crumpling my new found orderliness, I sweep the garage and the wind thwarts me before the door can close, the dishwasher is empty for a nanosecond, the damned dust settles back down 3 seconds after I wipe it away, the stock market sends me running to advisers hoping for something more than 'out of control' and family members get sick. I am not delusional. I know I am in no more control of the weeds than the orbit of the moon, but at least I have control over my understanding of the garden. I know what to expect of it. It is reliable and in that I find therapy for there is  little in this life that we truly have control over. Our outlook and expectations are something we can always work on. Peace in the garden.

Caitlin

IPM

Integrated Pest Management teaches a holistic approach to the science of pest management, whether those pests are weeds, diseases or harmful insects. Its basic premise is to choose first a method of control that does the least harm to the environment followed very closely by examining one's tolerance of the pest.

A perfect example is moss in the lawn. Personally, I could care less if there's moss in my lawn. Grass, actually, because my grass does not meet the definition of a thick and verdant lawn. Moss grows slowly (less mowing), in the shade and in poor soil, stays green all the time and is soft under my bare feet. What's not to like? I have a high tolerance for moss. When I get around to aerating, de-thatching, over-seeding and topdressing my grass with compost, the moss population will go down. Hopefully the white clover and weedy violets will too, which I have less tolerance for. Improving the health of my grass will be my first line of control against the weeds that it competes against. No chemicals required.

I have a client who has ivy, a noxious weed in our county. When they bought the house the trees had 2.5" thick vines growing on them. Ivy can kill a tree, a very big tree. The vines were severed, a 4" layer of ivy leaves covered the small back yard 5 weeks later and we've been doing "Ivy Chore" ever since. There is zero tolerance for ivy on this property. The challenge is how to accomplish this without hosing the place in brush killer. It's easier than one might think. Granted this is a small suburban lot and the homeowners are "on it" between my visits to their home. Every time I'm there I spend some time on the ivy. The mere act of removing new growth inhibits photosynthesis leading to weakened organism. Digging out roots advances this protocol. We will win the battle!

When I ran the garden center for my local hardware store in 2010, a customer came in asking for a weed and feed product for his lawn. As I showed him where the product was he told me there wasn't a weed on his property. He didn't allow them, used pesticides to eradicate any interloper. While soils health and weed and feed fertilizers are for a future post, I will say that this gardener's philosophy is the antithesis of IPM. Even golf courses have more lenient standards than 100% weed free greens.

For questions about IPM solutions and horticultural consultation, please contact me at caitlin@heronandcrow.com.

Caitlin