A 5-9 Garden
Growing a garden to be successful and sustainable can take a lot of work. Depending on your definition of success. Most people who garden as a hobby have normal jobs. If you are one of those people. Welcome.
I want to go over the importance of staying on top of your garden during the busy months. It is easy to tend to a garden when that is all you see around you. In the late spring and summer, all the stores have their sales and you can see out your window at all the pretty flowers growing. It is easy to get pulled into wanting to start a garden. However, us adults have to work most of the day, everyday. It can be hard to find the motivation to break a sweat in a garden after a long day of breaking a sweat at work. But good news, gardening is not always about breaking a sweat.
Being present in your garden is one of the most important things you can do to keep your garden thriving. I am not saying you have to get down and talk to your plants or name them. But just going in to visit your garden at least 4 times a week can have a huge impact. Lets talk pests to start. As I explained in a previous blog, not all pests are bad. You actually do need some in your garden. However, I am going to dive into the not so good pests like certain bugs or small rodents. Anything that does not serve a purpose and is just there for lunch, needs to go. Now instead of spraying crazy pesticides or installing sharp objects around your garden, I have found that just simply being in your garden frequently enough will keep them away. Those kind of animals are not to fond of humans. So without using unnatural things to get rid of them, you can simply just take a walk through.
Another challenge for a garden is the colder months. I am talking specifically the “BER” months. These always seem to be the hardest months for me to keep going in my garden. I dont know if it is because everything else is dying or what but I find little to no motivation to even go out and water my garden. In reality, I dont think I am the only one that does this. I feel like most people are just “dump gardeners” where they will plant during the opportune months then let it die out. I used to be that way too. But did you know that you can still grow in the fall and winter? Now, depending on where you live obviously but there are plants that actually survive better when the ground is cold.
Finding motivation to keep up with a garden can be hard. One good thing about a garden is, if you do give up and just let it die, everything that is planted is decomposable meaning, the next spring, your soil will be filled with nutrients! I am not saying you have to garden through the cold months, but in order to make the most out of a garden, that would be one way. Especially considering most growing seasons are so short.
