Editor’s Note: Lovely weather days are here, so have some plants and supplies delivered. Let’s get Gardening and create some beauty while we’re social distancing!
Like my mom, Frankie Hill, I would much rather be digging in the dirt than doing household chores. For me, gardening is about making connections through the Southern tradition of pass-along plants. Mom’s lily of the valley, Grandmother Carpenter’s prize iris, Mrs. Chapman’s larkspur, Mrs. Birchall’s poppies, and so many others bring such sweet memories each spring. Many of my plant benefactors are enjoying heaven’s gardens now, but I continue to feel their love every time I step outside.
Perhaps love was not the emotion you felt last summer when you looked at the flower bed you carefully planted with $50 of plants. Within weeks it resembled a scorched wilderness of weeds, convincing you that you truly had two black thumbs. So this year are you contemplating sticking silk flowers in your front beds and hoping people drive by so fast they will be fooled into thinking the plants are real? Even if you don’t have the “gardening” gene, bouquets of flowers and fresh vegetables can be yours all summer with just a little effort.
Study the space where you want to plant. Does it get morning sun, afternoon sun, all-day sun, filtered shade under a canopy of trees, or deep shade where seemingly nothing will grow?
Use a hand trowel to turn over about 6” of soil. Does it crumble easily in your hand, is it the consistency of a sand box, or is it the dreaded Oklahoma red clay?
Very sandy and clay soils will need organic material added for best results. Instead of purchasing bags of compost, use the dead leaves that still blanket most yards in your area. Your neighbors will thank you!
ALERT: Stop reading now if this seems like way too much work when all you wanted was a bouquet for the kitchen table. If that’s the case, all you need is sun and a packet of Cut-and-Come Again Zinnias. Follow the seed packet directions exactly for flowers all summer. And PLEASE don’t forget to water them regularly.
Empty way more bags of leaves than you think you will need on your lawn and mow over them repeatedly until finely ground. Spread 3-6” of ground leaves over your garden, turn over the soil, and level with a rake.
Once plants are established, use any leftover ground leaves as mulch to reduce weeds and retain moisture.
Now, what do you want to plant? Perennials bloom for only a few weeks but return year after year. Annuals bloom nonstop all season but must be purchased each year. I buy annuals early to get the cheapest 6-packs and mix them in with my perennials. Because perennials are expensive, make friends with a gardener like me to get pass-alongs for free! Trust me—I throw away trash bags full every time I thin out a bed.
If your garden gets 8 hours or more of sun, lucky you! Because choices are endless for sun-loving flowers and vegetables, I won’t even bother to give you any advice. My gardens are primarily filtered shade to deep shade. Plants for shade are much more challenging, especially flowering plants. These are my dependable shade perennials (many grow even better in full sun), in order of bloom time from February to frost:
Hellebore
Creeping phlox
Ferns, especially Japanese painted fern
Solomon’s seal
Larkspur (reseeds each year)
Heuchera
Oxalis
Iris
Daylily
Hostas
Daisy
Coneflower
Rudbeckia fulgida
Autumn joy sedum
Toad lily
Impatiens--my shade annual for constant bloom
I must confess that perennials do require thinning every 3-5 years, giving you a great opportunity to share these pass-alongs with others. However, as I have gotten older, I have converted portions of my perennial beds to flowering shrubs. I still enjoy continuous blooms and my back thanks me!
In our one sunny area, my husband Pary plants vegetables and I plant rows of flower seeds for a cutting garden of blooms I can use for bouquets. Each year I buy seed packets of Cut-and-Come-Again zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers. My other favorite cutting flowers, gaillardia and goldsturm black-eyed Susans, reseed each year. (A reseeding flower drops seeds after it flowers, causing new plants to magically appear the next year.)
Mom taught me that gardening satisfies your soul with beauty and keeps your family happier since your frustrations are taken out on weeds rather than loved ones. I always found after a day of teaching eight graders that nothing was more satisfying than yanking weeds out of the ground. Could your life use more beauty and stress relief? Maybe gardening is the answer!
Meet the Author!
Kathy spent twenty-six years teaching eighth grade English and managed to retire with most of her wits still intact. She enjoys a good book, trying new recipes, belly laughs with friends, and checking out every new chef in town. When she’s not planning for trips, she’s traveling with Pary, her husband of forty-six years and chief partner-in-crime since she fell in love with him as a nine year old at Council Road Baptist Mission.