Next year…

Jack Deatherage

(9/2023) The gardening season is months from being over and I'm leaping ahead to spring. The mad beginnings of the 2023 Cedar Ave Community Garden have proven a number of interesting things.

Foremost, I have no clue as to what I'm doing. Consequently, I failed to consider how much water the rubble, shale and nearly hardened clay under one end of the flowerbed would require just to keep things alive. Not good.

The towering sunflowers are the eye-catchers I hoped they'd be. Unfortunately, the large leafed titans also block the sight lines and the morning sun for the rest of the garden. Sowing the giants deeper into the garden next year would still allow them to attract passing eyes - their main purpose besides attracting pollinators (native bees in particular) and providing seeds for birds.

I'm less sure what to do about the rest of the flowerbed. I'd like to purchase three long, narrow metal raised beds (currently $510), but the DW would rather not. She thinks hauling in more garden soil would be less expensive. However, raised beds would reduce the amount of water going to that area of the garden and the amended soil we'd fill the beds with would stay put as would whatever fertilizers we use, unlike any amendments we work into the open ground.

Brian wants to add another thousand square feet to the garden. I suspect having had his brain rattled by the rototiller this spring he's now thinking "straw bale gardening". We'll need daily watering to prep the bales for planting, but considerably less water once they are planted, so I'm looking to add at least three more rain barrels to the three we have now. Town manager Ms. Willets, tells me the town can probably find rain barrels at a discount price I can afford. Of course "donated" rain barrels would be better, provided they are in good condition. The garden doesn't need anymore "donations" fit only for trash pickup.

Water is a serious issue. I've already been accosted by irritated town water customers. "Where are you getting water for the garden? I see you watering every day. You do know there is a water ban in place!"

My explanation that a ban is not yet in place and the fire department has delivered about 400 gallons to-date, and we've brought well over 1,000 gallons of clean waste and collected rain water from home doesn't seems to placate. That the DW and I are drawing around 7,000 gallons on our primary water tap and less than 3,000 on the second one and are still able to haul water to the community garden seems incomprehensible to some people. Should the fire department stop bringing water to the garden we could still increase the water we use in the garden by rearranging our household's usage without increasing our quarterly water bill! Plus, I'm researching ways to efficiently water the garden next year with less water than we're using now!

Mulch, mulch, mulch! Is the refrain of every YouTube gardener I follow. And what haven't we done this year? Mulch, mulch, mulch!

However! I have noticed something I'm sure I read about twenty or forty years ago. Living mulch. Also known as ground cover. Duh. (In my defense- people have spent their lives studying the needs of specific types of plants: roses, corn, potatoes, etc. and have died still not knowing everything that can be known about their individual cultures. I'm a generalist "wannabe" gardener, sort of.)

One of the metal raised beds is planted with peppers, dill, a tomato, a Soviet melon and cultivars of burr gherkin- West Indian and Ethiopian. The melon and gherkins have rampaged across the bed, overflowed the container and seemingly intend to take over the rest of the garden! All with considerably less water than the other raised beds have been receiving! Given all the raised beds have rotted straw bales as their base and the same mix of top and 'shroom soil as the growing medium, I suspect it's the rampant growth and late afternoon shade that allow that one bed to go wild with less water.

The in-ground Three Sisters plantings. Once the corn seedlings were knee high and the beans and squash were well sprouted we stopped watering those plants all together. Some of the corn stalks are most of twelve feet tall and many of them have multiple ears that are filling out nicely- in a drought! Why? The soil is better in that area than where the flowerbed is and the corn cultivars are heirlooms from the 1800s, bred to grow in exactly the conditions they're in now. However, the Italian pole beans twining their way up the corn stalks are also doing well in the drought.

Eh-hem. The squash/pumpkins ain't nothing to brag on. I planted the corn too densely and the vines aren't getting enough sunlight, though I do see a fruit here and there among the cornstalks. The vines are providing ground cover which aids in reducing the water demand.

Without straining what little brain matter still rattles betwixt me ears, I have three ways to reduce water at the garden: mulch (living and dead), container beds and drought tolerant plants. Toss in ollas, a thing I've read about but hadn't seriously considered before this year's drought and water rate increases, and I'm sure we can keep next year's expanding garden looking good and producing well with only slightly more water than we've used this year. Which brings me to my biggest concern.

I'm no longer physically able to do some of the garden chores and have to rely on others to get tasks accomplished- a thing I'm not happy about. Redesigning the garden to accommodate people of my physical/mental infirmities is possible, though unlikely without spending money I don't have. In spite of town staff and various commissioners telling me the town has money to fund this garden, I'm hesitant to seek their help when only 1/1000th of the town's population is actively involved with the project.

Brian wants to expand the garden by at least another thousand square feet. He plans to build a place one can visit for a few minutes or hours; to sit and contemplate, to watch the birds, the rabbits, the butterflies, the bees- a momentary escape? I can see a need for that. I've already spoken to a young couple that recently moved to this place and quickly discovered their infant kidlet is fascinated by the garden's flowers. They visit the garden almost daily.

The librarians tell me the handful of odd vegetables I left at the librarian's kiosk has drawn quite a bit of attention, at least among the kidlets. If I was better organized I'd have markers in the garden identifying the various plants for the kids the librarians bring to the garden. If I had more disposable income. If I weren't physically/mentally degrading. If more people were involved. "If wishes were fishes, we'd all be swimming in riches."

Deatherage

PO Box 417

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

Ph: 301-447-2151 (if the answering machine picks up, please leave a contact number - speak slowly and clearly.)

Email: jackdeathjr@juno.com

Check out the Facebook group- "Emmitsburg Youth/Community Garden"