There are two areas where I experience great feelings of inadequacy in the garden; and they are raspberries and asparagus. I read about them; I am pretty sure I "get it," then I go out and am completely nonplussed as I stare at what I've got. Right now my asparagus plants, which were cut down in the fall per directions I read, are still just the dead husks sticking out of the ground. I covered them with hay and uncovered them this morning, thinking I might see some green. Ummm, no. So I do what I always do, I walked away! I mean, do I get rid of those dead husks? I don't know. I hate not knowing.
The raspberry bushes confound me beyond belief. Either you have summer bearing or overbearing. If they are summer bearing, then you prune them one way, if they are overbearing, you prune them another. I know that I get two crops of berries from these teeny bushes; which would lead me to believe they are overbearing. But then it says if you want a greater yield; you should only go for one crop. So, I was out looking at my raspberry bushes and they look like hell. Peter says they are all dead. I know they're not all dead, but I also know that I was supposed to prune out the dead canes last fall. But I freaked out in total confusion and left them alone. So now we're here, Spring is coming, and I still don't know what to do! Do I prune them now? Then the same summer bearing overbearing thing comes up, and I just want to ignore them. I ignored them last year and they gave me some berries -- but they definitely need some type of TLC. Oh geesh. I find it so interesting how I let these things get to me! I mean, make a damn decision and move on. But I can't seem to! Like the end of the world will happen if I don't make the right one.
What I do know for sure is that they will do their damndest to stay alive -- that is just in their nature. And my worst problem is that I hate reading directions -- I just always assume I will figure something out intuitively -- especially in the garden. But not these two buggers! I still remain confounded after looking them up... again!
On another note, nearly ALL of the garlic I planted in the fall is growing -- and that is very exciting. How cool is that -- plant a clove of garlic and you get more garlic. Now THAT makes sense! But these are touchy plants too -- you have to trim down the garlic scapes at a certain point, and naturally none of the sources I seek agree on one certain time. Whatever.
When I started to garden three years ago (this will be my fourth year) I had no idea what I was doing. But I have gained experience, which is really the best way to learn anything. I feel very confident with many things -- lettuce, kale, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beets, carrots ... but then others do me in. Last year the broccoli and cabbage brought in these stupid pesty moths that ate everything in the garden that they could. So this year I am avoiding them like the plague! Besides, cabbage plants are huge and take forever to grow into one head of cabbage -- and all the while I was pulling worms off of them. By the time I got the hole-riddled cabbages, I didn't even want to eat them -- sure they were bug infested!
As for tomatoes -- oh such torture with the worm -- whatever it is called. I have a tendency to block out bad things, so I can't remember the name of the worm, but it is big, insidious and last year I lost nearly my entire tomato crop. I spoke to an organic gardener, hoping he would give me some fabulous insight on how to beat this worm, and he said, you pick them off. Great. Oh, and feed them to the chickens! Yeah, another reason to have chickens!
So this year I am going to put the tomatoes in a raised bed, to make it easier to pull off the worms! Fine, if that is the way to save the tomatoes, then so be it. I figure this way I can sit on the edge of the bed and pick away. Last year it was a hands and knees thing and I planted them too close, so it was really hard to spot the worms. This year, it will be all about getting those damn words as conveniently as possible! But I love garden fresh tomatoes way too much to not plant them.
So Peter and I wandered about to make a list of all the things that need to be done, as spring begins to come into play. The coop is going to require a bit of effort, but we determined where the run will be and how to set up the interior (we are using an existing playhouse, which was originally a shed.)
Then we scoped out the garden, decided to enlarge it a bit, add the raised bed, some more fencing and additional watering system, and then we discussed how to deal with the weeds that are climbing up both the inside and outside of the fence. Since this is where I plant the peas, it needs to be dealt with now, and we are trying to figure out a more permanent solution other than pulling the weeds, because they grow way to fast and they are nearly impossible to pull (tall grasses). It seems to me that the raised bed won't experience this; so who knows, maybe we will continue to add raised beds if I find they make more sense.
Peter and I have quite differing end games though, and it is kind of funny. He talks about leveling off this side and putting in steps and some more patio, adding more fence for aesthetic purposes, while I am all about where the plants are going to go and how to keep the varmints out!
This is such a tough time of year though -- it is right before the bloom. We hardly even have buds on the trees, where 15 miles south the trees are budding, and 30 miles south they are flowering. You almost get a false sense of no urgency when you go out and everything seems dead. But I know that it is only a matter of time before the garden will sprout up in weeds if I don't get a hop on it!
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