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My Secrets For A Weed-Free Garden

I hate to weed. It’s my least favorite gardening chore, especially in the veggie patch where annual tilling brings a potpourri of weed seeds to the surface each year. Luckily, I’ve discovered how to maintain a weed-free garden with little effort.

Weed Control in a Vegetable Garden

My vegetable garden weed control program begins long before I sow any veggie seeds or transplant seedlings. In fact, it starts the previous fall. After putting the garden to bed each year, I spread a thick layer of leaves over the entire veggie patch.

This prevents many weeds from germinating in late fall. I don’t worry about piling the leaves too thick. If need be, I can easily rake excess leaves and put them in the compost pile come spring.

My next step for a weed-free garden is to rototill as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. This uproots any large weeds that survived the winter. If any weed seeds do germinate at this time, their seedlings will be turned under when I rototill again.

The Best Garden Mulch for Weed Control

My second secret to a weed-free garden is mulching. Like the leaves I spread in the fall, mulch prohibits germination by preventing light from reaching weed seeds in the soil. I find the best garden mulch for weed control will decompose within a year and enrich the soil.

Newspaper, cardboard and grass clippings fit this requirement. As recycled materials, these are cost-efficient options when used as weed control in a vegetable garden. Here are my tips for using these mulches in the garden:

Don’t wait — Weed seeds can germinate quickly. As soon as I sow seeds or transplant seedlings, I begin laying down mulch between the rows and around young plants.

Avoid the burn — A thick layer of fresh grass clippings can create heat and damage young veggie plants. I spread fresh clippings thinly and add more each day or I shield my veggie seedlings from the grass clippings by placing a 3 to 4 inch (7.6-10 cm.) ring of shredded paper around the base of each plant.

Don’t shred cardboard — Not only is this hard on my paper shredder, but flattened boxes can be used to mulch large areas of the garden. I use it between rows of plants and in places that will eventually be overgrown with vining plants, such as pumpkins.

Be vigilant — As paper absorbs moisture and grass clippings dry, these mulches have a tendency to shrink. To maintain my weed-free garden all season long, I scout the garden weekly and quickly remove any weeds that penetrated the mulch barrier.

Keep on mulching — Each time I cut the grass, I add more clippings to the garden. Placing grass clippings overtop the shredded paper creates two layers of weed barrier protection.

Know your source –To ensure food safety, I don’t use grass clippings which have been treated with chemicals. Additionally, some types of paper can contain harmful chemicals or plastic inserts. In general, newspaper and brown cardboard are the safest paper products to use for weed control in a vegetable garden.

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My Gardening Sustainability Practices – A Work In Progress

Sustainability is a growing trend that many gardeners are embracing. With climate change and other environmental issues on everyone’s radar, it’s important to consider being more sustainable in all areas of our lives. For me, it’s a stepwise project and a work in progress in the garden.

My Sustainable Practices

For me, the most important aspect of sustainability in the garden is trying to match my yard to my local ecosystem. Growing native plants is one of the best things we can do for the environment as gardeners.

Plants native to your region support native wildlife. They are low-maintenance and don’t require much watering or other resources, like fertilizer. They attract and support pollinators that are struggling, especially bees.

I inherited a complete yard and garden when I moved into my current house. Over the years, I have slowly replaced some of the plants with native species. It’s a process, and I still have some non-natives, but I believe the changes have been positive. These are some of the other things I do to be more sustainable in the garden:

Hands-off Lawn Care — A turf lawn is far from natural, but it’s still the norm in my suburban neighborhood. Tearing it out to create a wildflower meadow would be frowned upon. Instead, I take a hands-off approach to save water. I let the grass go dormant in the summer months. I don’t use herbicides or pesticides and only apply a little fertilizer once or twice a year. I don’t sweat the “weeds” or moss that add to the green of the lawn.

Hand-Pulling Weeds — I don’t mind most weeds in the lawn, but I can’t have them taking over my beds. I never use herbicides to kill weeds. Instead, I spend peaceful, meditative hours in the garden hand-pulling weeds. I have learned to love it as a gardening activity.

Limited Watering — Planting more native perennials means that I don’t have to water my beds very often. I choose plants appropriate to the local climate and add mulch to beds and containers to help the soil stay moist longer. When it is going to rain, I move my containers out from under the patio awning to take advantage of it.

Composting — Creating compost is a good way to be sustainable in the kitchen and to benefit the garden. I do not create my own compost, but I do contribute my kitchen scraps to a local compost pile. My CSA (community supported agriculture) farm supplies me with fresh veggies weekly through summer and fall, and I bring them my scraps.

My Inspiration for Sustainability

What inspires me most to be more sustainable in the garden is the wildlife that lives there. I live in the suburbs but came here from the city. The amount and variety of wildlife I find here surprised me initially. From songbirds and hawks to opossums, squirrels, deer, and even foxes and coyotes, we have a lot.

I love animals and I enjoy watching the wildlife that comes and goes in my garden. It’s these animals that inspire me to be better when it comes to the environment. The choices I make in my garden directly impacts them.

I can provide non-native species of plants that don’t provide food and that might actively crowd out native plants, or I can put in native species they can use. I can waste water and use chemicals on a pristine lawn that provides nothing these animals need, or I can let it be more natural with a diversity of plants.

Sustainability in my house and garden is an ongoing work in progress. Every choice I make matters, and I consider the wildlife I so enjoy when making each one of them.

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Striving Towards Sustainability In The Garden

In this day and age of sustainability I am embarrassed to admit I could do more. It isn’t like we don’t make the attempt to be more mindful of our use and actions on our little blue planet. But full disclosure: we could do better.

I don’t want to beat myself up too badly. We do compost… albeit we pay to use our city’s composting program. And while this might seem like a check in the environmentally correct box, in reality it involves big trucks using large amounts of fuel going to distances farther than my back yard. That’s not really sustainable.

Sustainable Gardening Practices

Do we save water? Well, we don’t collect rainwater, which really would have been a great idea this past spring with all the torrential downpours followed by triple digit temps. We do, however, use drip irrigation for our plants and veggie gardens, water before the birds are up, and tip the scales in the direction of more native vs. non-native as well as drought tolerant plants.

We do indeed plant a vegetable garden which is better than driving to the store to get produce but only when you actually plant it. This year I balked at the veggie garden, preferring instead to plant flowers.

I know. I slid backwards on my sustainability there. But in my defense, my husband thinks vegetable is a four letter word and there is no physical way I can eat or preserve all the produce we… well… produce, so I cut way back. I did plant a few things like tomatoes and basil, but I didn’t sow nearly what I usually do.

Gardening Sustainably

We never use chemical pesticides, herbicides, or the like. I actually enjoy weeding (I’ve got a screw loose, I know) and as to the rest, we keep our plants healthy by incorporating plenty of organic matter at planting, space our plants, select disease resistant varieties when available, and mulch to retain moisture and keep roots cool.

We also almost exclusively, with the exception of vegetables, plant perennials. For one thing they are more economical than annuals and continue to thrive year after year. Our choices reflect our interest in using native plants, often drought tolerant ones while incorporating plants that encourage pollinators. Plus we harvest seeds from many of them or divide them to give to family and friends.

We also use an electric mower which, while it is less than sustainable, is better than using gas. The tire around my middle says I should be using an old push mower but let’s face it, I’m lazy.

Are we getting closer to a sustainable garden? The definition of sustainable is “avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.” I’m gonna say, no.

A little bit of accountability goes a long way ,even when you have a long way to go. But as the saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” so too shall we continue to strive towards a more sustainable landscape.

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Green In The Garden: Can You Have Too Much?

Even though a mostly green garden evokes a calm, serene feeling, I like to have some color contrast in the garden. When planting a new garden bed, I think about how the foliage colors will look and whether I need to add some contrast.

Balancing Green with Seasonal Color

In a front yard foundation planting, I have an Emerald Spreader Japanese yew, plus the evergreen perennials hellebore and autumn fern, which all have green foliage. When I purchased a dwarf Japanese maple to include, I chose one with year-round burgundy foliage. A row of Bobo hydrangeas have green foliage with white flowers that fade to pink. In front of them, I have three bronze-and-pink-colored coral bells, Heuchera villosa “Carnival Watermelon.”

I plant tulips in that bed each fall and I always pick pinkish or red to blend with the pink and burgundy in the foundation bed. The autumn fern Brilliance looks amazing when it sends up new growth in spring that is a gold/bronze color.

In a bed in the backyard, I added the evergreen, yellow-leaved Sunshine ligustrum to an otherwise green bed, however, the seasonal flowers provide contrasting colors when they are in bloom. The yellow-and-red coreopsis right next to it blooms all summer as does the “Blue Fortune” agastache on the other side of the bed. Mums, lilies, irises, and roses fill the inside of the bed.

In another backyard bed, I have several daylilies, which have green foliage, but the daylilies are all different colors – rose, deep purple, pink, salmon, and cranberry. Two dwarf hydrangeas bloom white and fade to pink. They correspond with a pink garden phlox and a magenta butterfly bush. The Autumn Joy sedum blooms pink and fades to a darker pink, so it blends well with all the green foliage and shades of pink in the bed.

Even though I have a lot of green foliage – I didn’t even mention the iris bed – I don’t think it is too much green. Green in a garden is like a neutral color that serves as a cohesive background, holding it all together.

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A Is For Amendment… Soil Amendment

We all know that healthy soil equals healthy plants. To that end it often takes a little bit of work on the gardener’s part to ensure that the soil is properly amended prior to planting.

Some people have to do quite a bit to their soil to make it a suitable plant home, while others have beautiful, lush soil full of organic matter and beneficial microorganisms.

I seem to fall into the latter category whether by luck or the design of the previous property owners. That doesn’t mean I don’t do anything to my soil, however.

Nutrients in the Soil

As plants grow each season they use up the existing soil nutrients and organic matter. The microorganisms and beneficial insects are left hungry, as is the plant. To that end most people use a supplemental fertilizer of some sort.

I cannot be relied on to fertilize my plants on a regular basis. Translation: I’m lazy and forgetful. This means that I tend to “juice” up my soil at the end of the growing season, so it’s all ready for spring growth and planting.

Juicing Up the Soil

There are numerous ways to invigorate soil such as planting cover crops, adding aged animal manure, mulching at the soil’s surface, adding compost, and rotating crops.

With the exception of planting cover crops, I use all of the above methods to improve my soil.

At the end of the growing season when the plants are starting to die back in the fall, I topdress the soil in my raised beds with aged manure. This is by far the cheapest organic fertilizer you can buy and I tend to buy it either on sale or the broken bags at the big box nurseries at a discount. Why? Because as I mentioned before on multiple occasions, I’m cheap. Anyway that’s it until next spring. In the spring, I turn the soil in the amended raised beds.

Other areas of my yard either get a similar treatment or, as in the perennial garden, I just dump fallen leaf mulch and grass clippings around the plants. This serves to protect them from winter’s icy breath and then does double duty as an amendment when I dig it in around the plants in the spring.

I also usually amend areas of the garden with compost but because I don’t have a compost pile – I’d have to sacrifice plants due to a tiny yard — I would have to purchase it and compost is like gold, so I usually go the cheap route of manure.

I’ve also been known to trench compost, which is something I learned from my grandparents who did it way before composting became trendy. It simply means digging a trench and dumping food scraps in the bottom, covering with compostable garden materials and then again with soil. The entirety will break down and enrich the soil with little work from you.

Budget Friendly Soil Amendment

My goal, besides growing healthy crops and plants, is to keep my soil rich and well-draining without breaking the bank. If using manure, I implore you to get aged manure if you reside in a city like I do. While fresh manure is dandy, it contains lots of harmful pathogens as well as undigested weed seeds, plus it stinks. The dogs will love it but not your neighbors.

If you have some property and plan to let the manure do its work over time, then by all means use fresh but give it a season before planting. Otherwise, if you like your neighbors, take my advice, use aged manure.

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Gardening For Mental Wellness

Gardening is often touted as a good hobby for staying physically active. It burns calories and builds strength and flexibility as you lift, carry, squat, and, of course, pull persistent weed after weed. This is all true, but for me, the primary benefit of gardening is what it does for my mental health.

Gardening Gets Me Outside

Research has proven what many people and cultures have long known: Being outside, being in nature and around green, growing things is good for mental health. I don’t have to garden to go outside, but when chores are waiting to be done daily, it forces me to get out there.

Being outdoors provides a big boost to mental health. It’s not necessary to get deep into the wilderness. Simply being where plants grow and wild animals live is enough to improve mood, lower depression, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase relaxation and resilience during difficult times.

In an increasingly technological world, this is more important than ever. I love the outdoors, but even for me, it’s easy to get lost in streaming movies and TV shows, scrolling through social media, and basically staying indoors, glued to a screen. Gardening is a reminder that I need to be outside, daily.

Gardening is Lifelong Learning

All hobbies are beneficial, but what I like so much about gardening is that it’s an ongoing learning experience. Good mental health relies on being satisfied and fulfilled in your life. For me, a big part of that is learning.

Gardening is the perfect hobby for anyone who loves to learn. Even if I become a master gardener, there is always still more to know. I learn through experience, from reading, and through occasional courses offered through my county extension office. To keep on learning is incredibly satisfying and leaves me feeling accomplished and fulfilled.

Gardening is Mindfulness

I discovered the joys of meditation only recently. After deciding to try a daily meditation course, I realized that gardening had been providing me with a type of mindfulness meditation for years. I just never realized it.

When working in the garden, I am in the moment. My mind focuses on the task at hand while my senses take in the feel of the dirt, the wind, and the sun. I hear birds and insects and see and smell all the plants around me. This is the essence of mindfulness, which is simply being aware of the present moment.

It turns out that all these years of gardening have been a beneficial mindfulness practice. According to research, mindfulness is good for mental health because it distracts the mind from troubling thoughts. While lost in a gardening task, instead of dwelling on past worries or future anxieties, my mind is focused on the moment. This is probably an important reason why I feel more relaxed and calm after spending time working in the garden.

Gardening is Acceptance

A big block to better mental health for me, and for many I’m sure, is acceptance. In order to be truly happy, it’s important to accept things you cannot change or control, to accept that things can’t always be perfect.

Gardening is a good hobby for anyone hobbled by perfectionism. Nature has a mind of its own. No matter how hard you work to get a garden to look a certain way, you cannot control every aspect of the outcome. Things will always go wrong. A plant that should have been perfect in one bed fails to thrive. Pests return despite your best efforts.

My garden has forced me to accept that I have to adapt my plans and sometimes cope with things the way they are. This doesn’t mean giving up or not working toward goals, but there are limits to what anyone can accomplish or control. Working in a garden has been a perfect lesson in acceptance, which ultimately leads to more happiness.

Gardening for health is a great goal. For anyone new to the hobby, just dive in and try it. You don’t have to do it well at first, and you likely won’t. Enjoy the process, embrace the outdoors, and accept your limitations.

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Vitamin D, Baby

We all know the benefits of being outdoors. Fresh air, exercise and sunshine all combine to enhance our wellness. Some folks like to take a run, others hike, and still others just read a book outside on a nice day. Gardening is like any other outdoor activity. It has the ability to add to our physical health, but also to boost our mood. Our beautiful world has much to offer our senses. Enjoying what Mother Nature has to offer is one of the many ways we can take care of ourselves and live a better life.

Gardening for Mental Health

A few years back I wrote an article: How Dirt Makes You Happy. It was about the science behind the concept. Apparently there are some microbes in soil that boost our serotonin levels. This is the mental equivalent of giving your brain some vitamins and increases the feeling of happiness. It’s basically a natural antidepressant which comes from the soil. One of the things I loved about the science is that it confirmed what I already knew. Gardening is my happy place. Our days are filled with the stresses of being a grown up. Digging in the dirt takes us back to our childhood and the simple acts required give the mind time to rest and refresh.

Another benefit of gardening is our sun exposure. I know, I know. We must be careful not to overindulge because of the risk of skin cancer. But with the proper SPF, we can block the harmful rays and still get a good boost of Vitamin D. Vitamin D lowers blood pressure, can prevent some cancers, protects against arthritis, and boosts the mood. So by digging in the soil and enjoying the sunshine, there is a one-two punch of goodness for our mental health.

We are a vision-oriented species. Directing our gaze to the beauties of the landscape and nature is pleasing. Just as we enjoy art of various kinds, Mother Nature’s paintbrush is busy in the garden. The wildlife, flora, and other aspects of our garden enrich our minds and stimulate the senses. Our sense of accomplishment is uplifted by a day enjoying the vista we have created.

Gardening for Physical Health

Now that we have our brains in good shape, the other great thing about gardening is its gentle exercise. You don’t have to run a marathon to keep in shape. The acts of stretching, lifting, bending, and other actions taken when gardening are sure to build muscles and flexibility. Even people with disabilities can benefit from the simple tasks done in the garden. There are few more wholesome and gentle actions than those taken when gardening.

If you are a vegetable gardener, there are further benefits. The food we produce ends up on our table. That means we can control its exposure to pesticides and herbicides. Reducing exposure to such toxins is better for the body. The fresh picked fruits and veggies taste better than days-old produce. The nutrient levels may be higher than mass produced foods. And the joy of growing one’s own food is immeasurable. Who can’t wait for that first red, ripe tomato, or the blush of a freshly picked peach?

Gardening and health simply go hand in hand. This productive activity is far more entertaining than staring at the TV or playing a video game. Gardening for health can be as purposeful an activity as doing a yoga session or lifting weights. And best of all, you don’t have to go to a gym, saving time and money which is good for our health too.

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The King Of Butterflies

I love seeing any kind of pollinator in my garden. All are welcome, but none are as showy or as exciting to spot as butterflies. My favorite, which I used to see in great numbers as a kid, is the monarch. Unfortunately, this gorgeous insect is in decline all over, including in my region and state. Planting native species is one of the easiest things we as gardeners can do to support these and other pollinators.

Monarchs in My Garden

As far back as I can remember in my life, it has always been a treat to see a monarch, even when they were more common. Maybe it’s the striking, black and orange, tiger-like coloring. Many butterflies fold up their wings and hide the vibrant colors, showing the dull brown-gray of their undersides, but monarchs are bright and colorful from any angle.

Another reason I love these insects, and why so many people do, is the spectacular journey they make. Monarchs migrate more than 1,000 miles (1,609 km.) between Mexico and the rest of North America. From Michigan, they fly 2,500 miles (4,023 km.) to Mexico.

Of course, there is the fact that, like many others, monarch butterflies are important pollinators. This is a reason to love them even if they didn’t have everything else going for them.

As monarch populations have dropped and become a less common sight, spotting one is more exciting than ever. I sometimes see one in my garden, but more often I find them in nearby parks. One local park is large and has a lot of natural areas with native plants. This is where I see the most butterflies of all types and the majority of monarchs.

Monarchs in Michigan

Monarch populations have dropped all over their native range, and Michigan, where I live, is no exception. In some places, monarch numbers are down a troubling 80%. A recent study from Michigan State University collected information for several years and found the primary cause for this drop: climate change.

There have been many contributing factors. The biggest decline in the population actually came in the late 1990s and early 2000s when herbicides with glyphosate were used heavily on farms. Genetically engineered crops that could resist glyphosate allowed farmers to spray the herbicide liberally over their fields with detrimental effects on milkweed plants.

Milkweed might be a weed on a farm, but for a monarch it is essential. This is the only plant that monarch butterflies use as food and hosts for their caterpillars.

While the glyphosate boom was a major contributor, researchers now say that climate change is having a bigger impact on monarch populations in Michigan. Changes in the climate in the butterflies’ northern spring and summer breeding areas have caused numbers to drop more than any other factor.

Supporting Monarchs and Other Pollinators

Monarchs will always be my favorite butterfly and I will continue to enjoy seeing them. I hope that it becomes less rare in the future. Stopping or reversing climate change might be a Herculean or impossible task right now, but individual, local choices can support monarch butterflies and other pollinators.

One of the most important things any gardener can do is plant native species. For monarchs, it is especially important to plant milkweed or at least allow it to grow naturally. Unfortunately, my garden isn’t the right setting for milkweed, but I do plant other native species that support other butterflies: black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower, and coreopsis to name a few.

The best way to plant flowers for butterflies is in groups. If they are too scattered throughout a garden, it’s more difficult for pollinators to find them. I have one large bed that is made up solely of native flowers attractive to pollinators.

Another thing I do to support monarchs and other butterflies is refrain from using herbicides and pesticides. I pull weeds by hand and welcome insects as long as they aren’t causing too much trouble. I hope that one day my garden and others in the area will become thriving native plant destinations for all kinds of pollinators. Then, I might begin to see my favorite butterfly more often.

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Birds I Have Known And Loved

Birds are one of the great joys of a gardener, and the wild variations in size, color and comportment of different species attest to the endless creativity of nature. While I enjoy the small, city birds that visit my garden in San Francisco, my true delight comes from birdwatching in France.

Getting to Know the Birds in France

One of the first things I built when we moved to a small stone house in the Pyrenees in French Basque Country was a bird feeding station. I stacked up several large wooden spools – used for electric wire – and grounded them with a stake through the central holes into the ground below.

This proved an endless source of joy and entertainment, particularly in the springtime. Parent birds would park their young on the various levels of the feeding station and fly off to find worms or get water. Although at first we recognized only the robins, in time we came to know and love many other species. Here are a few of my personal favorites.

European Robin

It was easy enough to recognize a French robin, even though it looks very different from its American counterpart. French robins are called “rouge gorges”, meaning red throats. And they, like American robins, have that giveaway red breast. But otherwise, robins in France are small and delicate, perhaps half the size of American robins. They stayed all year long, making them familiar members of our little community.

My favorite robin story involved a dramatic rescue: saving two baby birds from a snake. My young daughter came running into the house in tears one afternoon telling me that a snake was about to eat two baby robins.

I rushed outside to see the robin’s nest, halfway up the rocky rise beside the house. Two fuzzy birds peeked out fearfully. The nest was inaccessible to a crawling snake, but a couleuvre snake had spotted them, climbed into a tree, and was beginning a descent to the nest on a drooping branch. Both parent birds were circling the branch, trying to dissuade the snake by chirping and fluttering bravely, without success.

I was afraid of snakes, and this one was several feet long. But I knew I had to do something. I got a large bucket with a lid and positioned it on the ground beneath the snake’s branch, then cut off the branch, sending it and the snake into the bucket. This sounds a lot smoother an operation than it was, but, pumped full of adrenaline, I managed to clap the lid on the bucket. We carried the bucket up the mountain and released it far away.

French Merle

The blackbird in France is of the species Turdus merula. It is called the merle and it may be my favorite garden visitor. When I wake up in the morning in spring, summer and fall, my “alarm” is the song of the merles from the trees around the house.

These birds are either glossy black or dull black. Adult males have shiny black feathers with a bright yellow bill and eyering. The females and young birds are a duller, dark brown. They visit the property to feed on the holly berries and their beautiful song is a true delight to hear. While they don’t usually accept the sunflower seeds or suet from my feeder, they do drink from the water dish when they think I am not watching.

I love the merles for their song, their fierce independence, and the flash of glossy black as they fly by. We are neighbors on the mountain but not friends, although sometimes baby merles are left on the bird feeding station, large, fuzzy and hungry, as the parents go off to find food..

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My Favorite Birds

As a bird lover, it’s impossible to pick just one favorite species that visits my backyard. I can probably select a few, though, if pressed. From raptors to little songbirds to the rarer species, the truth is that I love them all. Creating a space that feeds and shelters birds is the perfect way to ensure they keep coming back.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

This funny little bird is unique for the way it moves up and down tree trunks looking for insects to eat. I work at a desk by a window and outside is a medium-sized walnut. Most months of the year I see nuthatches on the trunk. They move up and down in circles and upside down, sticking their bills into the bark crevices to fund food.

Rarer in my area is the red-breasted nuthatch. I have seen a few over the years. Both species are small with white, gray, and black coloring and a pointy, sharp bill. The red-breasted variety has reddish coloring on its chest. Attracting these birds requires no effort from me. They come for the trees, which are plentiful in my yard.

Cooper’s Hawk

Much grander in size and more dramatic are the hawks that grace my garden. As a bird lover, they leave me conflicted. The species I see most often is the Cooper’s hawk, a smaller hawk that eats songbirds. When they’re hanging around, I don’t get other birds at my feeder. Nonetheless, they are fun to see. One year, I had at least six juveniles nesting somewhere nearby and screeching through my garden all day long.

Red-tailed hawks are also regulars in my area, but they don’t visit the garden very often. They tend to soar high in the sky, swooping down in more open areas to grab prey. Cooper’s hawks fly low and flit between trees and branches as they hunt little birds.

Tufted Titmouse

This is a little songbird that shows up to my feeders less frequently than cardinals, sparrows, and chickadees. It’s a favorite bird of mine for one simple reason: it’s adorable. Tufted titmice look like a stuffed animal version of a songbird. They have a rounder shape than other birds with big black eyes and a cute little crest on the top of their heads. Also, they make a sweet, chirpy call that always reminds me of warmer weather.

Tufted titmice live in my area year-round, but they are a little more shy than other small species. To encourage more to show up and stick around, I put out their favorite foods: sunflower seeds, peanuts, and suet.

Woodpeckers

A few years ago, my neighbor complained about the sound a woodpecker was making in her backyard. She found the repetitive knocking of its bill against the tree annoying and disruptive. I can see her point. It’s not as nice a sound as the call of a songbird, but nevertheless I do enjoy woodpeckers in the garden. They come for the suet and nut feeders in particular.

The most common species that come to my suet and nut feeders are red-bellied and downy woodpeckers. The downy is quite small and easy to miss. It’s not as showy as other species with just a little tuft of red feathers on the top of the male’s head. The red-bellied woodpecker is a little bigger and has a bright red crown.

The woodpeckers I see less often are a real treat to spot. The male of the red-headed species has a deep red head with all over color set strikingly against a white chest and belly and black back. Even less common in my garden is one of my absolute favorite birds: the pileated woodpecker. This is the biggest species and the one that inspired Woody. I have only seen a couple of these, but they are spectacular. They are large and have a big, pointy bill and impressive red crest, unlike any other bird that visits my yard.

All bird species are welcome in my garden. I even have a hard time summoning up negative feelings for the non-native house sparrows. With plenty of winter foods, a few areas left natural, and native plants, any garden will attract and host a diverse array of native species.

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Choose Your Weapons

There are many things I dislike about gardening. I don’t love to mow, I hate insect pests, and I dislike babying the few roses we have. The one thing that is my worst enemy though, is weeds. I go into this battle annually with the deck stacked against me. This is due to an abandoned house on one side, and a neighbor on the other who lets weeds grow wild. Across the street, my neighbor tends the weeds because she uses them for medicine and food. So my battle with weed pests is constant due to the presence of seeds floating over into my landscape. It is an eternal struggle, one that I never truly win.

Weeding Woes

The one thing that makes me really grouchy regarding gardening is weeds. I understand that dandelion flowers are important food for honeybees, and wild milkweed feeds various butterflies and moths. However, I can’t stand the disorder and chaos that weeds represent. Plus, weeds are so stoic, my wanted plants hardly stand a chance. The latter would be pushed out if I didn’t wage war on weeds from February into the first snow. Since my landscape is organic, I must battle with natural weed control, something that requires more physical activity than a chemical war.

The main persistent weeds of this area are purslane, dandelion, oyster root, puncturevine, sagebrush, various grasses, thistle, skeleton weed, curly dock, and poison hemlock. Most of these are listed as noxious weeds and it is our duty and home or landowners to eradicate them when we see them. In the fields, the farmers just spray them out with chemical cocktails. Here, I use organic weed control. That is a combination of homemade non-toxic brews and hand pulling.

Hand pulling weeds is the bane of my existence. It must be done weekly and every time it is an all-day chore. I am often out in triple digit temperatures trying to rein in their takeover. It is a thankless task because just a few days after doing all that weeding, the hellish things are in evidence anew. As the prevailing winds blow over from the abandoned house, I can view the parachute-like dandelion seeds and downy thistle float gently over to my dirt farm and settle in for occupation, and occupation it is. It is an unsolicited invasion, one that seeks to drain me of energy and sap my will.

Homemade Weed Killer

I don’t only practice manual removal. My arsenal of tactics also includes my home brews. These concoctions are the result of kitchen items, often paired with things like white vinegar, essential oils, and dish soap. I also rely upon black plastic, weed barrier fabric, boiling water, and my trusty flame weeder. This last item is a true back saver but can only be used when there is no wind (which rarely happens here), and in the presence of a hose, just in case.

I can safely and accurately say that weeds are my enemy, my nemesis, my foe. I detest weeds and the actions I must take to eradicate them. If my efforts were successful for more than a few days, it would all be worth it. Yet they are not, and I can look forward to a growing season of battlefield strategies and trench warfare. It is an ugly battle and one that seems fruitless, just like most wars that are waged. However, I will persist because I am crazy, and pig headed. Let the weeds try to take me, I’ll fight ’til the bitter end!

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Five Flower Bulbs

Spring has long been one of my favorite seasons in the garden. As days grow warmer, I find myself immersed in outdoor activity. Though many annual flowers are slow to become established and begin blooming, spring flowering bulbs are ready to burst into life. With careful planning in the fall, ornamental flower gardeners and landscapers can create beautiful green spaces that are sure to dazzle. Below, I have outlined some of my favorite spring blooming flower bulbs.

The Beauty of Early Spring Flowering Bulbs

Anemones – Also known as Anemone coronaria, anemones are often among the first flowering bulbs to bloom in the late winter. Delicate flowers are produced on tall stems, above short foliage. Each plant produces masses of stems which seem to “dance” in the breeze. Though several cultivars for cutting gardens exist, most blooms range in color from white to shades of blue and pink.

Daffodils – Coming into bloom around the same time as anemone, daffodils make an excellent companion in perennial bulb beds. Though traditional yellow blooms are most common, many cultivars offer exceptional interest. These varieties of daffodil include those which are fully double, unique split-corona types, and those with vibrant peachy-orange hues.

Muscari – Also known as grape hyacinth, muscari bulbs produce small clusters of true blue flowers. This stunning blue color is extremely complimentary to many other spring blooming hues. Since muscari is known to thrive in part shade, the bulbs can quickly multiply and begin to naturalize when grown where conditions are ideal.

Ranunculus – Much like anemone, ranunculus corms can be planted in either fall or spring, depending upon the growing zone. Ranunculuses are prized among cut flower growers for their intricate rose-shaped flowers and wide range of color. Since each plant produces multiple flowers, growers can expect the stunning floral display to last several weeks in the garden.

Tulips – A springtime classic in many gardens, the emergence of tulips are a certain sign that warmer weather is on the way. Ranging greatly in size, flower shape, and color; it is likely that growers can easily find cultivars which will effortlessly blend into the landscape. While early season tulips will come into bloom around the same time as other bulbs mentioned here, gardeners can further extend the season by planting other mid and late maturing varieties, as well.

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When To Plant English Peas

It seems like the first crops of the season make the biggest impact on me. Whether it’s lettuce, peas, green onions, or asparagus, these early spring veggies just seem loaded with extra freshness and flavor. These foods are always a welcomed sight on the dinner table, especially after having relied on frozen vegetables during the winter.

So which of these early spring veggies is my favorite? It can be tough to single out one, but for me the winner is English peas. I love to eat them fresh from the garden. And since they are first crop I plant in the veggie patch each spring, English peas signify the start of my vegetable gardening season.

When Do You Plant English Peas?

If I could have asked my grandfather, he would have told me exactly when to plant English peas. It would be St. Joseph’s day, which is celebrated annually on March 19. At least, this is what my father passed along to me.

So for years, I made it a point to plant my English garden peas on this date. Sometimes, the peas germinated well, but more often than not, many rotted in the soggy cold soil. I would end up with patchy rows, half-filled with pea seedlings. Even heavily sowing these spring legumes didn’t give me full rows.

Now I don’t blame my forebears for this advice. After all, most pea seed packets indicate this crop can be sown as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. It’s possible the microclimate of my grandfather’s urban garden made St. Joseph’s day the ideal time for him to plant these early spring veggies.

Which brings me to my point. Sowing the first crops of the season is inherently risky due to the instability of spring weather. This is especially true for gardeners like myself, who have gardens located in more rural areas.

My garden is more exposed to the elements than my grandfather’s or father’s. It’s not surrounded by heat-retaining roads and buildings. Nor does it benefit from the intricate drainage systems which cities and suburbs use to remove excess rainfall.

How to Plant Peas

Bottom line, I’ve had to adopt different criteria for when to plant English peas. I now sow my first crops of the season when the conditions are right for germination, rather than on a set date. Here are key factors I consider before choosing my pea planting day:

Can the soil be worked? Spring rains combined with snow melt can keep my veggie patch much too wet to rototill in March and April. To speed up the drying process, I use a pitchfork to loosely turn over the soil in the small area of the garden where I’ll plant my peas.

What is the ambient and soil temperatures? The optimal soil temperature range for pea germination is between 40 to 70 degrees F. (4.4-21 C.). I follow the extended forecast and look for the prediction of warm, sunny weather for several days in a row. This helps warm and dry the soil which keeps seed loss at a minimum.

Can I speed up the germination process? Depending upon the soil temperature, it can take anywhere from 7 to 30 days for English garden peas to sprout. Soaking pea seeds overnight can speed up this process which prevents the seeds from rotting should cold-weather conditions return.

Once conditions seem right, I dig in (literally) and welcome the start of the growing season!

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Overwintering Coleus For Another Year Of Growth

One of my favorite annuals to grow in containers on the back patio is coleus. This stunning tropical comes in varieties with foliage that range from variegated yellow and green to a red so deep it’s nearly black. Instead of watching these beauties die at the first frost, I’ve tried a couple of coleus overwintering methods so I can plant them outside again in spring.

Bringing Containers Indoors

The easiest way to overwinter a tropical plant is to bring it indoors. It’s not necessarily the ideal situation for a coleus because it needs a lot of warmth and humidity. It can work, though, if you take good care of the plant.

Start by taking the plant out of the pot and rinsing the roots to get rid of any bugs or eggs. Repot it in a clean container with fresh, moist, high-quality potting soil. Give your indoor coleus a north-facing window, as it prefers indirect light. Make sure it’s a warm spot and use a humidity tray for moisture.

Taking Cuttings

One reason I don’t like overwintering coleus using the full plant is that it just doesn’t do well indoors. If you can keep it alive, it should thrive again in spring, but in the meantime, it will look scraggly and dull.

A better way is to take cuttings from your favorite plants. A cutting is like a baby coleus at an earlier growth stage. It will be eager to start growing new foliage throughout the winter.

Be sure to take cuttings before the first frost, or you’ll lose the plant. Place cuttings in water just long enough to get root growth. You can use a rooting hormone to speed the process. Once you see roots, pot up the coleus cuttings with some good potting soil. Give them a sunny spot and plenty of moisture.

Getting Coleus Ready for Spring

Whether you saved the whole plant or grew new ones from cuttings, it’s vital that you acclimatize them properly before replanting outdoors. Take the plants outside on warmer spring days for a few hours and increase the time spent outside day by day.

After a couple of weeks, they will be ready to go outside full time. If you kept an entire plant, you can now cut it back a little, removing any faded or browned leaves. Pinch back both plants regularly to help them grow fuller and to avoid leggy growth.

I’ve used both methods in the past to save coleus and find the cutting method works best. They look healthy and vibrant in spring. All they really need is to be hardened off for a couple weeks. My patio looks like I bought new plants from the garden center.

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Tough As Clay

Long before I lived here, glaciers spread across the land. These geological events shaped the surface of the earth and deposited various types of rock and sediment. During the roughly 12,000 years since the last glacier, water and wind has eroded much of the finer soil from my property. I was left with clay and growing vegetables in heavy clay soil is not fun.

Properties of Clay Soil

Like most new homeowners, I was excited to make the place our own. This included fixing up the inside of the home, redoing the landscaping around the house, and of course, planting a vegetable garden. The last turned out to be the hardest.

After all, who thinks of taking a shovel and digging into the yard when looking at houses? Little did I know that under the thin covering of grass was approximately 2 feet (61 cm.) of red clay. Dig deeper and it turns to gray clay, much like what I played with in kindergarten.

Thus, during my first year growing a vegetable garden, I learned two very important lessons about clay: dry clay is rock hard, and wet clay is sticky. I broke many tools my first years of gardening and wet clay ruined just as many shoes.

The size and shape of the individual clay particles are responsible for these clay soil properties. Unlike sand which is angular, or silt which is round, clay particles are much smaller and flat. This gives clay the ability to be cohesive and stick to itself. It also allows clay to be adhesive and stick to other things.

Clay Soil in the Vegetable Garden

Growing mediums which contain mostly clay particles are often called heavy soils. Clay drains poorly in wet weather and cracks when dry. Although clay soils contain the nutrients plants need, there is little air space between the clay particles for the root system to expand and reach the available nutrients.

For me, this meant my vegetable plants did not grow to their full potential or produce expected yields. Clay soil doesn’t break up to a fine powder but stays chunky when tilled. This decreased the germination rate of the carrots, cucumbers, and cantaloupe seeds I planted.

Clay is also slow to absorb water, thus an inappropriately timed heavy rain would sometimes wash my seeds away. Poor drainage resulted in losing plants to root rot. However, the worst issue I faced was weeding. It was impossible to pull weeds out by the roots, so they quickly re-grew and overtook the garden.

I knew if I wanted to successfully grow vegetables in the future, I would need to do something. As a new homeowner with a mortgage to pay, a raised bed system was too expensive to install. This meant amending the soil that was already in the garden.

How to Amend Clay Soil

I have to admit, I was a young and naive gardener back then. Yet, I managed to get it right. Amending clay soil is an easy process of slowly adding organic material over the course of many years. I used the organic waste from my own property, including horse manure with wood shavings, grass clippings, and fall leaves.

These materials must be added slowly over a period of time to prevent nitrogen depletion. This occurs when the microorganisms in the soil use nitrogen to break down carbon-rich materials. Just as in a compost pile, the nitrogen-rich or “green” materials included the horse manure and grass.

These must be balanced with “brown” carbon-rich material such as the wood shavings and leaves. When the microorganisms die, they release the nitrogen back into the soil. By adding organic materials slowly, the nitrogen released will equal or exceed the nitrogen being consumed.

It’s now thirty plus years later. The nutrient and water holding clay particles are still present in my garden soil, but their ratio to organic material has changed significantly. I no longer see hard, cracked soil. Instead, it breaks apart easily and creates a bed of fine dirt for starting seeds. The drainage has improved, yet it retains sufficient moisture during dry spells. My plants grow to full size and produce bushels of produce. Most importantly, I can easily pull those darn weeds!

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Annuals Make A Comeback

Annual plants always seem to be a waste of money to me, since they die every fall. But that doesn’t stop me from planting self seeding plants. They are free after the first year and I can enjoy them season after season. Flowers are chief among these, but there are also plenty of annual plants that will reliably come back in early spring.

Some Vegetables Overwinter

I’m an avid vegetable gardener and can’t wait until the first veggies are available in my garden. There are some that overwinter and keep producing, and some that can be harvested in winter. I’ve had carrots and leeks when the soil was soft enough to harvest them. We had cabbage and Brussels sprouts fresh from the garden even in January. But as I’m cleaning up the garden I’m excited to see some annual plants reappearing.

We still had some snow, but I went outside in my mud boots and began to remove old plant matter anyway. Imagine my surprise to find 4 inch (10 cm.) tall snow and snap peas. For a flash I thought they had survived winter, but then remembered they were annuals. Plus, it had never happened before. So what miracle had transpired to make these plants reappear? I assume some pods were on the ground and the seed inside matured and got planted naturally. So up they sprang, bigger than they would be if I had seeded them myself.

In the vegetable garden, it isn’t just the peas that will reappear. The old zucchini, pumpkins and other squash seem to pop up everywhere from left behind fruits. Sometimes they hybridize, resulting in a mystery food. Any allium left behind in the garden will send out seed and reproduce. My chive plant is a classic example of reseeded plants. They die out in fall but there are always several new plants to replace them by the start of summer. I will soon find tomatoes and basil plants volunteering near their old location.

Flowers Self-Seed

Self-seeding plants are little miracles of nature. They drop seed which grows on site or gets spread by wind or other machinations. I get new petunia plants in my pots every year that grow up to flower and spread. Not all annual plants will self seed, but in the right conditions, most will. I always thought snapdragons were annuals, but the ones that grow here come back every year. Plus they spread like wildfire. I now have a significant stand of the brightly blooming plants. We also have calendula, nasturtiums, zinnia, and bachelor buttons beginning to show. The cleome is a particular surprise, re-blooming year after year from fresh plants. And don’t let me get started about my sunflowers. I rarely seed any but the whole garden is filled with the towering plants due to messy bird activity.

It is crucial to recognize the little plantlets, so you don’t weed them out. I accidentally did that with some leeks that were coming up, thinking they were grass. I’m pretty savvy now, with some experience under my belt. And that means freebies from my re-seeded plants.

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Random Planting Brings Many Surprises

Some gardeners mark the planting location of every bulb and garden seed. Others keep a garden journal with the plantings duly recorded in dated entries. But, alas, I am not among their numbers.

I am the kind of a gardener who hits the garden store to buy some potting soil and comes home with 10 different kinds of bulbs or packets of seeds. It’s not that I don’t plant them- I do! But life moves so fast it’s hard to keep hold of what I planted where. That makes for many happy surprises in springtime.

Random Planting Locations

When I say that I plant my seeds and bulbs in random locations, I don’t mean that I toss them into the air and let they grow where they lie. I find an appropriate location, with the exposure the particular plant needs, and plant it – seed or bulb – with a lot of care.

But since most of the beds in my garden have good afternoon sun exposure, I never quite know what is where. And did I end up buying the tulips or the crocuses? Who remembers this stuff?

Happy Surprises

It is an odd system but one that works for me. Since I have no expectations come spring, I am never disappointed. No tulips? I must have bought the crocuses and moved them into that planting location. Whatever does appear and grow is a happy surprise.

Then of course, there are the happy surprises of reseeder plants, those that take it upon themselves to make their own comeback. California poppies are number one on the list of reseeder plants that create their own destiny, but they aren’t alone. Have you ever tried to plant one nasturtium? Or to limit the salvia to a couple square feet? Good luck.

Avocado Surprises

But my biggest surprises this year have been in the compost pile. Since I am a fan of avocados, lots of avocado pits end up in the compost pile. Then, come spring, I discover many of the pits have grown into avocado plants.

I have never officially grown an avocado in my garden, but I have done the avocado thing with toothpicks and a glass of water in the house. So, I know what avocado plants look like. I currently have 12 of them growing in the compost heap, one almost 3 feet (1m) tall. It will be an even greater surprise if they produce avocados, but for the moment, the plants themselves are a big enough wonder.

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