All you need to fast-track your gardening is an extra pair of hands

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June 3, 2009

By T.C. Conner/The Write Gardener Allied News Wed Jun 03, 2009, 01:41 PM EDT

Phillip Hartsock and his wife Colleen live just down the road from us; about a minute from my driveway to theirs. I dropped in on them a couple of weeks ago – they were outside planting a few pansies.

I learned that Phillip usually maintains a section of the front flower bed and he had it well-prepared to receive the cute little monkey-faced violas he was arranging here and there. It’s a raised bed, not very big, there’s an ornamental weeping cherry tree in one corner and a small trellis in the middle. I was told a plastic vine sometimes gets draped around the trellis, not sure what variety, but I do know it never needs watering.

It was a very relaxed atmosphere, the perfect example of what can be called slow gardening. Completely unlike what went on at our place this past weekend.

Things started out slow. We’ve been waiting for the vegetable patch to dry out for over a month so we could at least begin to till in the cover crop (read: weed), amend the soil, and carve out the paths.

And when it finally warmed up to the point of almost feeling like summer, and the dirt was finally dry enough to work, I remembered that I needed to find some extra topsoil from who knows where. (Last season our cucurbit crops were all but wiped out by cucumber beetles and we got rid of the dirt the cukes and zukes were planted in.) My wife, Maureen, heard about some free dirt and where to get it, perfect I thought. That is until I drove there and saw a mound the size of Mt. Rushmore, and it was mostly heavy clay (What was I expecting? Loam?).

Talk about slow gardening; well, when I saw that mountain of clay I’d knew I’d be doing some slow shoveling. I should mention that working at home as a freelance writer means more than just sitting and typing, and when I need something done during the day, and school is still in and Maureen is still at work, I have no help (ignore that slight intonation of a whine).

So it was just me and my shovel as I arrived at the bottom of Mt. Rushmore. Wait – what’s this? A backhoe parked right next to the mountain of dirt? Yes indeed, and I had every intention of using it, until the owner showed up. Feeling a little guilty for coveting another man’s piece of heavy machinery, I haphazardly scooped up a shovel full of dirt and dumped it in the bed of my truck.

I must admit to being a little concerned when one of the men approached the backhoe, I knew they had seen me peering inside their machine. To my surprise, the man asked if I’d like him to scoop a bucket-full in the truck for me! It took him less than five minutes to do what would’ve taken me two hours and in short order I was on my way back to the garden. Slow gardening just became a little faster.

When Maureen got in from work that day, I whined about how long it took me to hand-shovel all that dirt, how tired I was, and how we’d have to settle for less than perfect topsoil. And then I made up a story about forgetting my gloves (I rarely wear them anyway) and getting blisters on each hand from all that shoveling. Just about the time I was going to mention the flat tire, Maureen noticed my perfectly clean clothes and the spoof was over.

In spring, slow gardening begins after everything is planted; until then, it’s frenetic gardening: Organize seeds, prepare beds, gather pots and plants, mix potting soil, locate tools, and – if you’ve a lawn the size of mine – trying to keep up with mowing in early spring can be a study in futility. It’s hardly any wonder that by the time things are finally planted and slow gardening arrives, I feel like I’ve just played a one-man football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers!

Memorial Day weekend is considered to be the unofficial beginning of summer, but for some, it’s the official beginning of the gardening season. And sometimes the beginning of the gardening season starts out as fast as the horses leaving the gates at Churchill Downs. Thank goodness gardening slows down once the race to get things planted is over.

Gardening Tips

ä If you haven’t pruned your forsythia, go ahead and do it now. As a general rule, remove about one-third of the old growth each year.

ä Roses are beginning to flower. Scratch in some rose food around the base of your plant. Roses also love fish emulsion, which can be used alone or in combination with other fertilizers.

ä If you’re not mulching, you should. It’s been dry lately and mulch helps soil retain moisture.

ä Keep those mower blades sharp and mow higher than normal until grasses slow their early spring growth rates.

T.C. Conner is a Master Gardener and columnist for Allied News. He can be reached at tc@thewritegardener.com.

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