Ch-ch-ch-chives!: And Lessons for the Season
The first part of the title is supposed to be to the tune of the Chia Pet commercials. It doesn't really work with chives, unless you hear it... and this is a blog... and I'm spending far too much time explaining a joke...
ANYWAY!
The season is done. I'm sorry if this is news to anyone, as it is, after all, October. Other balmier climates may still be growing and harvesting things, but one good frost will kill off my few remaining plants here in Minnesota. But I'm alright with that, because in exchange, I get this:
And just in time for my birthday! My 25th birthday has come and gone. I went to gamble with my friends. That was totally unprecedented for me. But I digress.
The garden is done. All that is left are the marigolds and nasturtiums, blooming their little hearts out. They really are a joy to see, especially since they're covered in BEES. I would guess they are the final source of nectar in the area.
It's time to start planting bulbs which will include a bunch of tulips, daffodils, irises, and garlic. I suspect there will be a post about that when it happens.
Right now I feel a little sad, as I always do at this time of year, about my lack of ambition. I wish I'd expanded the garden further, planted more vegetables, planted some fruits. I wish I had weeded more, watered more, tended more. But I have learned a lot, and next year, maybe I'll do some of that extra work. Or maybe I'll have a job and an apartment and I won't have any time for any of it. Somehow I doubt either of those things will be fully true.
I thought I would share some of the things I've learned about gardening this season, more for myself to remember next year than for your benefit :-P.
1. Remember where you plant your perennials. As you may have gathered by now, I'm not big on what most gardeners would call "planning." And as such, I tend to forget that some things, like chives, will be coming back the next year and need their own space. Speaking of which:
2. Actually have a plan. Every gardening book I've ever read starts out with a long boring section about the basics of gardening, and a step by step process that includes measuring and plotting out your garden on paper, researching and finding out a plethora of facts about each plant (color, height, sun requirements, relationship to other plants) and to find a magic combination. Most of that is crap to me. I'll plant things where I have space, help them how I can, and see what happens. But I really should have a plan so that I know what to buy and generally where to plant it.
3. Harvest early, harvest often. I probably could have made off with twice as much produce from my vegetables and herbs if I'd started hacking them to pieces right away. It is amazing how resilient plants are this way. Instead the broccoli flowers and I go to the grocery store. I'll give you my favorite example:
One of the only plants I remember strongly from my growing up is a chive plant we found under the lilac tree along the fence. We did nothing for it, and it came back every year for ages, until it was crowded out by our ever growing weed problem. Somehow this didn't stick in my head when I planted them. I planted chives, ate a few, and forgot about them again at the end of the season. This spring they were one of the first things to come back out of the snow. Within about a month, they were overgrown, tough, and pushing around the other smaller plants. I cut them all away with some grass shears. A couple of months later I realized they'd grown back, and started cutting them and harvesting them again. Then other plants got in the way. Broccoli and beans and tomatoes and okra were always more interesting.
In the middle of our cold September, I did a little garden clean up. The chives were once again tough and overgrown, half of them were brown and shriveled, and they generally looked terrible. With some regret for not using them all this time, I hacked it back down to an inch tall. And then it got warm in October, and now, all of the sudden, at the end of the season, I have chives for my cottage cheese again.
That's why I love gardening.
I suspect there will be more lessons as I think of them. Also, I will write about socks.
ANYWAY!
The season is done. I'm sorry if this is news to anyone, as it is, after all, October. Other balmier climates may still be growing and harvesting things, but one good frost will kill off my few remaining plants here in Minnesota. But I'm alright with that, because in exchange, I get this:
The garden is done. All that is left are the marigolds and nasturtiums, blooming their little hearts out. They really are a joy to see, especially since they're covered in BEES. I would guess they are the final source of nectar in the area.
It's time to start planting bulbs which will include a bunch of tulips, daffodils, irises, and garlic. I suspect there will be a post about that when it happens.
Right now I feel a little sad, as I always do at this time of year, about my lack of ambition. I wish I'd expanded the garden further, planted more vegetables, planted some fruits. I wish I had weeded more, watered more, tended more. But I have learned a lot, and next year, maybe I'll do some of that extra work. Or maybe I'll have a job and an apartment and I won't have any time for any of it. Somehow I doubt either of those things will be fully true.
I thought I would share some of the things I've learned about gardening this season, more for myself to remember next year than for your benefit :-P.
1. Remember where you plant your perennials. As you may have gathered by now, I'm not big on what most gardeners would call "planning." And as such, I tend to forget that some things, like chives, will be coming back the next year and need their own space. Speaking of which:
2. Actually have a plan. Every gardening book I've ever read starts out with a long boring section about the basics of gardening, and a step by step process that includes measuring and plotting out your garden on paper, researching and finding out a plethora of facts about each plant (color, height, sun requirements, relationship to other plants) and to find a magic combination. Most of that is crap to me. I'll plant things where I have space, help them how I can, and see what happens. But I really should have a plan so that I know what to buy and generally where to plant it.
3. Harvest early, harvest often. I probably could have made off with twice as much produce from my vegetables and herbs if I'd started hacking them to pieces right away. It is amazing how resilient plants are this way. Instead the broccoli flowers and I go to the grocery store. I'll give you my favorite example:
One of the only plants I remember strongly from my growing up is a chive plant we found under the lilac tree along the fence. We did nothing for it, and it came back every year for ages, until it was crowded out by our ever growing weed problem. Somehow this didn't stick in my head when I planted them. I planted chives, ate a few, and forgot about them again at the end of the season. This spring they were one of the first things to come back out of the snow. Within about a month, they were overgrown, tough, and pushing around the other smaller plants. I cut them all away with some grass shears. A couple of months later I realized they'd grown back, and started cutting them and harvesting them again. Then other plants got in the way. Broccoli and beans and tomatoes and okra were always more interesting.
In the middle of our cold September, I did a little garden clean up. The chives were once again tough and overgrown, half of them were brown and shriveled, and they generally looked terrible. With some regret for not using them all this time, I hacked it back down to an inch tall. And then it got warm in October, and now, all of the sudden, at the end of the season, I have chives for my cottage cheese again.
That's why I love gardening.
I suspect there will be more lessons as I think of them. Also, I will write about socks.
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