How Her Garden Grows

How Anne Brodie gets her garden growing.

You garden is at its prettiest now , having heaved up from sleep almost overnight, refreshed, tender and optimistic. This is the time to commit to your garden because nature won’t wait for you to be in the mood. Get dirty now for the highest return, before it gets too hot to work. The garden will grow in intensity before peaking and do its gorgeous red brown fadeout without a lot of help, but this is miracle time. Spring’s scent show is in full force. Heady fragrant gifts like lilac, some honeysuckles and alyssum and fruit trees looks and smell like joy.

Hope you held off planting till May 24th, as global warming has made weather a psychopath. Those who plant earlier, risk heavy rains and chilly nights that may wash away seedlings. I jumped the gun and murdered a flat of germander I’d nursed indoors for three months. They simply drowned. Good news is, most things will come up from seed if you plant now. Sow lettuces, herbs and tomato seeds directly into the ground.
But first, take time to outline and fill in herb and vegetable plots. Edge, edge, edge. The garden isn’t finished until the edges are defined. Use a moon shaped blade of good quality. Get those weeds out with a hand fork; forget useless hardware store potions and boiling water. It’s best to use your hand tools and excise roots for once and for all. And please, go easy on your back and knees. Hard work now will pay off in ways you could never imagine, especially in the deep sense of reward that comes with blossom and harvest. Fertilize with natural wonders like compost hummus, Epsom salts and coffee grounds then stand stand back for blast off!