A month has passed since I set foot in my backyard garden. I fully expected all the plants to be near death. As it turns out the neglect and sporadic rainfall did wonders for these garden beds! Would you like to take a look?
Previously I had decided to abandon my plot and leave it to do as it wished. After years of trying to make this space productive and mostly failing I felt really discouraged and didn't want to waste anymore time. Instead I turned my attention to a forming a garden of potted plants and microgreens around the front patio.
The final effort (or so I thought) was to direct sow a few handfuls of fava beans last fall. Over winter they grew extremely slowly but, when I went away for a month they matured and have since given us many bowl-fulls of beans.
As I harvested the fava beans I noticed that there are tons of sprouts coming up. As far as I can identify they are mostly zinnias with a few cosmos and calendulas sprouting too. It made me think ... should I really abandon this garden or rather, let it be wild AND productive?
To really let these sprouting flowers have a fair shot I needed to do a bit of weeding and decided to enlist my four legged friend, Tila. I wasn't sure if she would go after the fava beans that I want to save seed from and so I covered the remaining plants with shade cloth.
It has been quite a journey with our rescue mare. Three years ago she would run away if a human tried to approach her. Now she will shake me down for treats and let me brush her main. It is so sweet to see the transformation and even count her as an ally. I cut up an apple and persuaded her to enter the fenced off garden.
Keeping with the idea of letting the garden be wild I tilled up an empty garden bed and sprinkled over seeds: marigold, sunflower, and parsley. I really have no idea how this will turn out but, as I have so many seeds saved from previous years I thought it was worth a try!
For the most part, however, I am focusing my plantings in the potted garden which is right outside the front door. It is so nearby that I never forget to water daily and harvesting microgreens and herbs is simple. The other garden is about a minute walk away and not too inviting at night when I need a bit of greenery to decorate the dinner plate.
Another benefit of this front porch garden is that it is bursting with catnip and a favorite hang-out for our three cats. Birds love to dig up the garden and I can do little to stop them. Our cats don't hunt birds but are very effective at keeping them away from their beloved catnip and all of my seedlings tucked in between.
After a while Tila grew tired of being in the fenced garden and called for me to let her out. She then promptly wandered over to her dedicated napping spot on our front lawn and took a 15 minute nap after her morning of weeding. I think this co-creation is going to work out just fine!