The Perfect Garden

The Perfect Garden

This is the time of year when the successes and disappointments of the garden become reality. I am a little disappointed with the garden this year. There are some successes; but the failures are more glaring. The perfect garden like the perfect lover is mostly in the mind. That is why this is the best time to start planning next years garden. It is still perfect.

It is wonderful to live in the city and still have deer and rabbits and other wildlife in the yard. They are great to watch. It has never been a problem if they eat a little bit from the garden. It is fun to play little tricks on them, like spraying everything with habanero spray. This year they have taken more than a little bit.

Deer must be excluded from “the perfect garden”. Stuff will be planted outside the garden for them to munch. An 8’ fence will go around the garden. Deer can jump 18’; but maybe they won’t if there is something good to eat outside. Bugs must be excluded as well. Companion planting and organic sprays will be used for that. The habanero pepper spray worked well. It was a little too strong at the bottom of the sprayer. It actually burned the grape leaves. There are some really simple cheap sprayers at Lowes. I will buy a couple extra and label them so the sprays can be separated. BT, sulfur and pepper-garlic will be used.

It would be wonderful to have everything in raised beds. The work to do that is massive; but a couple of new raised beds can be added each year. The plans in my mind included a row of hanging tomato plants. The one hanging plant is not doing as well as the planted ones; so maybe 3 or 4 hanging plants will be used as a comparison. The design on the raised beds will be made to accommodate some chicken wire panels that can be added or removed easily to let me in and keep rabbits, squirrels, raccoons and birds out. Bird net can be draped over the top.

Summer squash plants are so greedy. They want to take over the whole garden. (See Picture.) They were given a 4’ row this year. It is still not enough. Next year they will get panels on the side of the rows to keep them in their place.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.

Update

Update

The Swiss chard lasagna was delicious. It takes a lot of chard. The chard row will be longer next year. The first sugar peas were picked on Saturday (5/16). They have to be picked everyday or the pods fill out. They are really hard to find. It is like an Easter egg hunt. The last spinach has bolted and was pulled off Saturday as well. Egg plants and herb plants from the green house and from direct seeding are too slow for me. I broke down and bought some plants.

The squash is growing well. Cucumbers had to be replanted as the row just did not fill out. The watermelon is growing too fast. It was planted between the onions that are being allowed to go to seed and the sugar peas. I may have to pull off a few of the pea vines around the watermelon plants. The 1st crop of figs is not ripe. The second crop is coming out. The paw paws are growing nicely. I planted a short row of okra just because I had the space.

The eager eater bugs are coming out now. For mosquitoes I spray myself instead of the yard. I am making a spray of habanero peppers and garlic. I will let you know if it works. I have been procrastinating on doing it because we have had a prediction of rain everyday and rain will wash it off.


David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/.