Maybe it's because I haven't drawn a plan for the garden this year. Maybe my mental health is declining even more. All winter I was anticipating the arrival of spring and now that it's here, I feel I'm not ready. Lately, I've been feeling very disorganized, apathetic, and just plain depressed. Days go by and I know I could be doing more to help the situation.
Despite all of this, there are some things I managed to accomplish.
I planted my little compost raised bed already. Filled it with a row of sugar snap peas, a row of spinach, and 2 splotches of a little bit of carrot. We'll see how that goes. Even besides my protection (the cage and even some used coffee grounds), something still got in and dug around in there? What could it have been? Probably a small bird.
Speaking of sugar snap peas, I'm sprouting a third batch. Actually, while planting the first, I discovered a queen bumble bee retiring to her hidey hole nearby! I inoculated that batch of peas and forgot the ones in the raised bed, unfortunately. I'm inoculating the new batch now with my go-to product, which I'm starting to not like.
This product, as you may know, is bacteria that bonds to the roots of pea/bean family plants and through a special symbiosis, fix free atmospheric nitrogen into fertilizer. It comes in small granules and must be kept in a cool, dark place. I tried to replicate the method we used at my old job.
When I worked as a horticultural assistant, we would soak the beans in jars of water with the inoculant for a day, then drain the water leaving them in the moist inoculant until they germinate.
This is what mine look like. Notice how all the inoculant is just settled at the bottom? That's because it is granular and heavy, not a light powder like the kind we used at work. I think I need to find some of that kind. I feel like it works better.
On to the next batch of failures. These are all the dud echinacea seeds in left with. Guess how many germinated? 1...
I planted it and it's not even growing. I'm not even sure if it is even alive still. This was part of my effort to incorporate more flowers into the garden. Spoiler alert: no other flower seeds have sprouted besides Johnny-jump-up
-_-
And where are my wild marigold seeds‽
I've also been devastated by the gradual massive die-off of my most established bonsai tree. You can't tell, but it's a citrus tree. If it survives, it will have to start all over as it has lost all its branches.
Something is happening to its mother as well. Its leaves are yellowing, dropping, and some have spots that don't sit well with me.
Sometimes I wonder what my life might be like if I were to just let them all...go
...
Anyways, one thing I'm happy about are the bee cups I installed. I bought them during the winter, when I was still excited. I am skeptical on their practicality but they are supposed to hold water and have ultraviolet colors like flowers that only bees can see, which attracts them to the little water cups. But it gets so hot here in the dead of summer that I feel like they will just evaporate in a matter of hours. So I tried to put them in cool, shady places to prevent that.
And this is what my space looks like right now. Do you see anything wrong with it? Besides it being mostly empty. In my defense, it is still chilly here. When family members come and see they are usually somehow offended. I'm sorry that my lack of tilling offends you. No, I'm not. I used all the dead tomato plants as mulch and I, for one, thought it was pretty nice. I'm starting to get tired of hearing questions like,"Aren't you going to clean up?" Clean up what? You want to see the bare soil‽
I need to plant more perennials. And also figure out where I can buy local sungold tomatoes. There's a lot of stuff I need to do. Can I do it? Will I do it?
Maybe I'll try something different this year...
Please wish me luck in all my endeavors. I need it.
Oh so sad to know that most of the plants didn't grow well but still thankful for those some who is still alive. Just continue taking care of them and hopefully they will survive.
Thanks, I will try not to lose hope and not give up either. No sprouts? Plant more, right? Everybody's comments are so encouraging!
Yes just sow seeds, take care of it and nature will be your big help to let it grow.
Interesting!
Never heard before about bee cups!
It's so smart!
However, this year spring in our region was very windy and wet. No bee could fly through such air.
And, I sadly believe, we will stay without apricots this season.
May be in the future scientists will find some umbrella ☔ device for bees to let them fly in any weather 😂
I keep putting off making a bee hotel for native bees. It's easy, really.
Also, I think I forgot to write about the cherry tree. It bore no flowers this year either, again. Thanks for reading!
This is really great management of gardening. The potted plants look healthy and the fruits harvested are great to be consumed.
Some years are like that: I haven't done much for winter vegetables this year. I'm considering it progress if I just set myself one task for the day or week and complete that
You're right. I should focus on and celebrate the small victories! Thank you!
Keep fighting!
Yay! 🤗
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Oh dear @proto26 - I'm sorry to hear you are feeling down. Maybe the coming sunshine will lift you up a little, or maybe you could streamline things and just decide to grow one patch, chuck a few seeds around, and hope for the best - sometimes we need to let things go and in the end the result suprises us. I'm sure in the height of summer you'll be feeling more cheerful and you'll have more successes than you thought.
The beecups are interesting. I use bird baths with rocks in them so the bees can creep to the edge to drink. A lot of people forget to feed bees and they are so important, as us gardeners know.
Sorry I took so long to get to this. xx
Thanks, river! I'm already feeling better about things. And yes, there's something a little satisfying about just tossing seeds around and hoping for the best. It's so easy! I did that with carrots but I don't really know what those sproutlings are supposed to look like so we'll see.
I need to plant more flower seeds! The poor bees (and lady bugs)! I also never finished that bee flower book, but like you said, it's pretty intuitive, isn't it?