A Restoration Project

The soil in the tiers where I generally run the Mantis and plant seeds was a lot like cement. I considered using explosives to dig a hole for the basil plant.

There was some standing water there in the springtime deluges. I guessed that all life was extinct. The Perma Bed at that point was being covered with three bags of topsoil Lissa brought me, then more mulch.

However, I wanted so desperately to have green beans that I loosened the sad soil on the right  with a turning fork. I didn't turn it over, just poked the tines in the hard dirt, every few miserable inches. That necessitated hopping on the fork and wiggling it, then struggling to get the fork back out.

Next, I ran Tillie, which bucked like a bronco. As a last resort, I attacked the big clods with a small mattock . I felt not unlike a member of a chain gang sentenced to hard labor.

After more rains, the soil returned to the same rock-like consistency, only with big chunks of dirt as an unwelcome extra.

In desperation, and giving up for the season entirely, I decided to feed the dirt for next year. My idea was to send an invitation to all microbes and earthworms to come to a feast.

First, I made a tub of chicken manure tea. Even with sugar, it was unpalatable. I sloshed it over the bed by the bucketful. Then I made a tub of fish fertilizer tea from a bottle that had been around for years. Ditto with slinging it over the lumpy soil.

Last of all, I covered the whole bed with mower-bagged grass, weeds and clover, both red and white. Thereupon I collapsed into a lawn chair and vowed to take up another hobby.

Two weeks later, I peeked under the mulch and discovered moist FRIABLE soil. Acting quickly, before the dream vanished, I used a dibble and planted green bean seeds every few inches, not disturbing the soil or mulch any more than absolutely necessary.

As I did so, I recalled that was exactly the method that Ruth Stout had advocated, about fifty years ago, just pulling the mulch back and planting without tilling. Of course when I read her books, I was not an elderly woman myself and strongly believed in the Troy Bilt ads showing Joy and Torture.

My big red tiller has been down in one of the outbuildings for years. It worked fine when I had someone to disc our  90 x 90  loamy garden and spread barn bedding with a huge manure spreader in the fall. Now I have a hillside tier of short beds that the tiller is too big for.

Ruth's book, How to Have a Green Thumb Without An Aching Back is long out of print but is certainly worth finding. It really works!

Mulching has always been part of my gardening, but it was as a cover to stop weeds and conserve moisture. The thing I don't like about the Perma Bed is it's not any good for starting seeds, with the bottom layer being rotting cardboard. I must have my dirt.

The Perma Bed has been great for the tomato and pepper plants, now bearing bountiful crops. Some cantaloupe Lis started early are looking promising, too.

As a reward for getting right on the bean planting, a big thunderstorm rolled in during the night.

Now the beans have sprouted, along with a patty pan squash. From now on, I vow to treat my soil like dirt and give it more dead fish emulsion and chicken poop tea. I'll cover it with a blanket of mulch to keep the hot summer sun from baking it. I swear to remember a lesson I should have learned fifty years ago: more mulch!

July Flowerworks

Time for the peaceful fireworks display by the daylilies.

As always, I staged these  flower pics so as to avoid lots of weeds muscling in on the shot like they do in the border. I believe the chain link fence keeps them out. I did plant the Clasping Coneflowers, a gift packet from Jung's Seeds. The clover was not invited to this party.

The large leaves on the left are the milkweeds that I left so I could enjoy their brief fragrant blooms. They have popped up all over but as yet have attracted no Monarch butterflies.

This year, the clover was the rampant hostile takeover in the beds. I have been yanking the stuff out by the fistful, with very little success. It breaks off readily but the roots are firmly immovable, ready to generate more clover.

Looking on the bright side, the clover has no doubt helped loosen the soil that lost all life from two springs of flooded beds followed by hot dry days.

However, the daylilies were protected from the clover invasion by a timely application by my head gardener, me, of a thick leaf mulch. I got the mulch from an early mowing this spring of the fall fall of mixed leaves. Seen here are Wayside Painted Ladies and in the back are Fairy Tale Pink.

Thus it was that (notice how elegant that sounds in contrast to the now-popular habit of starting every single sentence with  So) the fabulous daylilies have managed to thrive despite a pretty dry summer thus far.

These beauties are Dominic, now a lush plant with huge blooms. All my daylilies  from Roots and Rhizomes have grown much bigger than their recommended spacing. Shown in the first photo is a start from this plant that I moved to the end of the garden last year.

This is the front border that I showed in early springtime after removing excess larkspur.

At last, the effortless look of the cottage garden, achieved by much hard work.

These two, planted on the new hillside garden, will no doubt need to be moved farther apart in springtime.  White clover have been temporarily hoed out but are just waiting for my back to be turned. I believe they creep in at night.

Purple Coneflowers, being a native to Missouri, are so hardy they can be dug up when growing and plopped down in any sunny spot and will thrive and have babies. The same is true for the butterfly weed, now established in several beds and determined to rule.

These Shasta Daisies have been blooming in this spot at the end of the daylily bed for years. The daylilies bloom at different times, extending the show. Along the fence are wild Black-Eyed Susans.

Every day brings new blooms and plenty of dead-heading chores. Contrary to the song, it's the most wonderful time of the year.