Gardening can be a challenge

Springtime Azaleas 

One of my favorite summertime tasks is watering the gardens. That is a good thing, because it never seems to rain at our house. I cringe when I hear news of flash flood warnings, 30 miles to the north or south of us. Here, nary a drop. This lack of rainfall is becoming habitual. We sure could use the rain.

While watering is my favorite chore, calling what I have 'gardens' may be a misnomer because since moving to the Ozarks, I have been completely garden-challenged. I used to pride myself on having a green thumb, but that was in Illinois, the land of perfect tilth in a rich, deep layer of topsoil. I really do miss Illinois dirt.

I have gardening successes now and then, such as my herb garden that is sporting a rosemary plant so healthy it may take over the entire back yard or the vinca that stands up to anything and grows and spreads wherever it can. I let it have its way, because it is alive, pretty, green, and has flowers. Besides, there are snakes living in it and I see no reason to disrupt their happy home. I can also grow hot peppers extremely well, which is one of my favorite things to grow and to eat. However, high achievement generally is not the norm. When I set out my first plants with all the hope and expectation of a new, novice Ozarks homeowner, I never counted on the animals that live in the woods eating everything I put into the ground or the extremely hot conditions that turn healthy plants into crispy critters, or the nitrogen-starvation in the soil that prevents anything other than trees to grow in my woodland landscape.

Still, I try. I will conquer this gardening thing!

I thought I solved my tomato gardening escapades when my husband built a lovely raised bed garden for me. Last year, I actually ate tomatoes, albeit not as many as I had hoped. Tomatoes will generally grow anywhere, except at my house.

The current condition of the many different heirloom varieties I've planted are now just sticks. Something is eating them, although I have no idea what. I can't find a single tomato hornworm, and I have checked at various times of the day. Thankfully I have tomatoes planted all over the place in pots on the deck, the patio, on the stairs--places the deer haven't gone yet. I refuse to be tomato-free this year. Whatever is eating the leaves is very curious. There are little drills in the dirt that look like ant hills, but with a large shallow hole the size of a marble in the center. I have no idea who is making those. I don't even know if they are coming from the surface and escaping under ground or if they are living under ground and coming up.

Flowers don't do much better at my house. My husband and I just spent some quality time moving landscaping bricks from the backyard herb garden. He recently enlarged it, to accommodate the rosemary. He used landscape timbers. Our aim was to build a small retaining wall, since our front yard is heavily sloped. We have tried various plants, but so far, the only thing that grows are lilies, daffodils, and irises. But there is another problem. The deer help themselves to every flower they see. They have even walked on the front sidewalk and onto the porch to grab something.

A flower garden in the making

Deer just make themselves at home here. I'm flattered, but stop eating my flowers!

I just planted some cone flowers--native plants--thinking they will do well. I've tried amending the soil with bone meal to add phosphorous and blood meal to add nitrogen. The plants were actually showing signs of life. I watered carefully every day during the hot weather. I woke up one morning and the flower heads which were just about to show color, were gone along with most of the leaves. It is my rogue deer friend, Sarah. Not only does she drink from the bird bath, as state in a previous post but she helps herself to flowers too. She and her friends have eaten every living thing that I've put in the ground. We have sprayed all kinds of natural products that promise to repel deer and snakes and chiggers and ticks, apparently to no avail.

This is disheartening, but it is also a learning experience. I will not give in. I will grow beautiful flowers and vegetables if it kills me.

Finally, gardening success

Everyone who knows me, is probably familiar with my struggles to maintain a productive vegetable garden. I want to report that this is my year!

Since John and I moved to the Ozarks eight years ago from the land-of-glacial-till, topsoil-rich Illinois, I have been relatively unsuccessful at raising my beloved tomatoes, probably one of the easiest crops to grow in all the universe. Yet, every year, one thing or another has destroyed my chances to harvest big, red, juicy tomatoes. I have been successful with cherry tomatoes and some tiny, under-sized Roma tomatoes, but their larger cousins have eluded me. 

This is the year we finally got it right! 

Today, I picked my first tomato pictured here during its last few moments of life on the vine. 

This is a relatively new garden, installed by John. It is a raised bed and is filled with store-bought dirt. I started some  heirloom tomatoes in the house this winter. I also bought some plants. I believe this is one of those, although my grown-from-seed plants are doing well also.

This little heirloom tomato, of an unknown variety, is the first of what I hope will be many, is the product of years of observation. To me it represents a successful learning experience.

When we moved to Arkansas, one of the first things we did was pick a spot for a garden. I ignored all the people who told me not to bother trying to plant a garden. 

"It's just too darned hot," they said. But, I wouldn't listen. I am a firm believer in gardening and eating fresh, organic food that you grow yourself. Besides, there is nothing like the flavor of a fresh-picked tomato right off the vine. 

Our property is largely forested, but when we first began our gardening quest, we assumed that if we picked a sunny location, all would be well. We even overlooked all the rocks in the soil as John ran our little rototiller through it, stopping frequently to leverage a huge rock out of the tines. To me, nothing holds more promise than a newly-tilled garden. 

Our early efforts looked promising. We had planted corn, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, peas, strawberries, and asparagus. In the early spring, the plants looked lucious. Then it started getting hot. I underestimated the hot, arid Arkansas summers. I watered now and then, but was afraid to water too frequently since we use well water. The plants stopped growing and soon withered.  

Another year, we noticed that our sunny spot was now in the shade most of the day.  The plants never really did very well. I know that some trees have a cycle whereby one year they produce seeds and another year they are more leafy. I assume Oak and Hickory trees have such a cycle. They had also grown bigger and blocked more sun. The garden was on the east side of the house, so the garden had to rely on its sun during the earlier part of the day. The plants soon looked malnourished--probably because they were. I recalled hearing how the least fertile soil type is that of forest land, simply because trees take all the nutrients out of the soil. What I needed was a fertilizer rich in nitrogen. I tried that, but with mediocre results.

We decided we needed a new plan, so John built a raised bed garden in the back of the house adjacent to the patio. We had an herb garden there that was doing pretty well.  

That was the year we learned the hard way about rabbits, deer, squirrels, and other woodland creatures that were drawn to my garden delicacies. 

This year our answer was to take some of the chicken wire fencing around the initial garden and install it around the raised bed. That seemed to do the trick. I water every day. There isn't much in the garden except for tomatoes and peppers, but, that is OK with me for now. At this point, all I wanted was to eat a fresh tomato.  I consider this to be a very successful venture. In the future, and maybe even this fall, I can plant a variety of vegetables.

For the record, I almost couldn't lose this year. I also planted tomatoes in pots on the deck and in pots on the front porch. Pictured here are a pot of nice-sized Roma tomatoes. A couple of them are turning red, so it won't be long for these either. 

I've always been successful at growing one of my favorite things--Serrano peppers. They were introduced to me by a dear friend and former neighbor whose family is from Mexico. He brought me a couple of plants one year and I always grow them now. I always think of Cel when I plant them and when I eat them.

They are my favorite hot peppers. They have a much better flavor that japalenos and a different kind of heat. I eat them both fresh, cut up in tacos and in fresh salsa. I really like to cook with them though. They have the most delightful flavor. One of my favorite things to use serranos for is canned salsa. 

I've been wildly successful with these. Hot peppers must love Arkansas. They seem to love the conditions here.

I started this plant, shown at right, in a pot last year, brought it into the house for the winter, where it continued to produce peppers. It was a shadow of its former self this spring when I transplanted it outside, but it is perking up nicely. I have already picked a few peppers from it. Though they are hidden by leaves, there are a few peppers on on it, along with future peppers in the flower stage. I don't often wait for the peppers to turn red. They are just as good at any stage.

Vegetable gardening coming along

This year's vegetable garden is coming along. I always love taking pictures of the new garden so I can see the progress as the year goes on.

Weather has been totally cooperative of late, in that the extremely warm early spring we enjoyed has now settled into total perfection. It is now after 11 a.m. and the temperature is holding steady at 61º. It will probably warm up to about 70º later in the afternoon.

An early view of my tomatoes, peppers, etc.
Seeds are starting to come up.
There is lettuce growing on the far end.

I watched the deer in the backyard yesterday, perilously close to my raised-bed garden. I stood on the deck eye-to-eye with them, wondering if they could read what I was trying to convey. Get out!

They probably want to wait to hit the tomato plants, like last year, just when the plants are getting close to producing ripe fruit. Right now, we have minimal protection for the plants, but I'm thinking about a more secure structure in the near future. Right now there is a rusty, metal blue heron crying to be painted, guarding the garden. He is wearing a necklace of Irish Spring as a deterrent, but I doubt it is effective. A sliver of soap was hanging on a post on the other side of the garden until we discovered it on the ground, all chewed to pieces. I have no idea if it were deer who did that deed, but I bet whoever it was  had a belly ache.

I hope my tomatoes and peppers grow as well as the Vinca-that-tried-to-eat-Arkansas.

That stuff is amazing. It is the most prolific plant I have ever seen. It grows well, has pretty purple flowers, is healthy, and requires no care. I take that back--the only care it requires is to remove it from where it doesn't belong, but that isn't much of a problem. I love this stuff! I can't believe I used to buy it every year when I lived near Chicago to add interest to flower flower pots and boxes. Here, it lives and thrives.

A few Roma tomatoes growing in a pot

The garden looks pretty much like crap right now, but I'm hoping a little Arkansas sunshine and some rain that has been promised this week will help these plants perk up.

Just in case of another deer disaster, I have planted tomatoes and peppers in pots too. I want to ensure a crop this year, even if it is just a small one. I'm tired of being skunked every year when it comes to my beloved tomatoes.

A tiny Serrano pepper growing on last year's plant

I have several pepper plants this year--varieties that claim they are red peppers. Funny, I thought all bell pepper varieties turned red eventually. Oh well, the picture of the red pepper on the label was enough to entice me.

I also saved a couple of Serrano peppers from last year. At the end of the season I dug them up, put them in a pot and brought them in the house. I had a few peppers to enjoy all winter. I just planted those same plants outside. One of them is already growing a baby pepper. My mouth is watering already. Serranos are my favorite.

I never heard of them or even considered growing hot peppers until my former neighbor Cel Hernandez brought me a couple plants. I was hooked. I will be forever grateful to him for introducing me to what is now one of my favorite foods. I love to use them in salsa, guacamole, and tacos, as well as in soups, spaghetti sauce, or just about anything. They are a little hotter than jalapenos, but are much more mild when cooked. They are so much more flavorful.

Herbs plus strawberries and raspberries

The herb garden is looking much better than the veg garden, although that is because the plants are perennial.

The only thing that was left of the herb garden was that lovely rosemary, chives, oregano, lemon balm, and sage. That is the new raised bed my hubby built this year. I added a few strawberries and two raspberries, as well as lavender, coriander, and basil. I still have a basil plant in the house, but one can never have too much of that. I had a pot of chocolate mint, but it wasn't happy so I moved it. I had planned to leave it in the pot because mint spreads so wildly, but I decided to plant it right into the garden. Perhaps she will have more clout over the Bermuda grass that continues to invade my life.

I have high hopes for this year's garden--just as I always do--around mid April. As they say, hope springs eternal.

So this is Autumn…

I don’t mind saying that the coming of Autumn is a relief after the blisteringly hot summer we have just experienced here in Arkansas.
Probably the best way to measure the summer of 2011 would be in my garden. Sad place…I’ve had some real challenges since moving to the natural state, from the Illinois bread basket of the nation, but this year was the worst.
This year’s challenge has been the deer that ate all the fruit and tops off my tomato plants. But even absent the hungry rogue deer, I can’t imagine that I would have seen many home grown veges.
But it isn’t over ‘til its over. As the growing season winds down, my tomato plants are flowering once again. Things are looking good in the garden.
Flowers, severely pruned thanks to rogue deer family, are growing once again, and looking vibrant. The last rose of summer syndrome has taken over the garden once again. For me, that just translates into pure joy.