Local Food Project – Year One Wrap

The first summer in a new-to-you house is always one of discovery, and never more so than when you are in an entirely new portion of the country to boot! We decided right away to wait before we really started planning and planting. If you’ve been gardening for any length of time the need to understand a property becomes quickly apparent. Understanding where the sun hits when, where water collects or doesn’t, where the wind may buffet or the location of protected nooks… all of these things are critical in planning a garden. But trying to go an entire spring and summer without planting anything at all was difficult. (And by difficult I mean impossible.)

In truth, we found several areas that were just bare, presumably regularly weeded and mulched by the previous owner. But to me they were, lifeless, and I could not let them stay that way. So I turned one of those areas into an herb/tea garden, another into a wildflower/pollinator garden, and a third into an ornamental/super low maintenance area. I focused entirely on perennials, plants that will come back year after year without any interference on my part. Outside of these three areas we also planted some elderberries, paw paw, and a fig – all plants that will take years to mature and fruit, so we wanted to get them started.

We left the rest of the property alone, simply watching to see what popped up where, what sort of trees we had around, what was healthy and what might need some help or even need to be removed. We found all the little microclimates that exist on every property – areas where water seems to collect and the soil stays moist, dry patches, where we had sun and which areas seemed permanently shaded. We kept track of visitors, with deer, turkeys, and voles seeming to be the most common, and took note of where they wandered or seemed to live, when/if they arrived and when they left. All of this information will help us plan the rest of the garden, to decide which plants have the best shot of thriving in which areas, where we may want raised beds as opposed to planting directly into the soil. We also discovered we had several healthy and productive black walnut trees on the property, a HUGE patch of thyme, and wild onions that popped up all over the place in early spring. Now that we’re armed with a full season of knowledge about our property, the work of planning begins!

I didn’t do a great job keeping track of the varietals or keeping track of the numbers of each we planted, if I took a note of it (or remembered it) I added it.

For Humans

Horseradish
Marjoram
Oregano
Bronze Fennel
Lemon Balm
Anise Hyssop
Mint Patch
Fig Tree (Little Miss Figgy)
Paw Paw Tree (x2)
Elderberries (x3)
Blueberries (Climax, Tifblue, x3)
Garlic Patch
Saffron Crocus Patch
Carolina Tea (x1)

For Critters

Sage (Red Autumn, x2)
Artemisia (Powis Castle, x3)
Tickseed (Coreopsis Grandiflora, x2)
Milkweed (Asclepias Tuberosa x5))
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra Spectabilis x2)
Blue False Indigo (Baptisia x2)
Monarda (many)
Walkers Low Catmint (x2)
Hyssop (Arizona Sun, x2)
Penstemon (Red Rocks, many)
Beardtongue (many)
Coreopsis (Moonbeam, many)
Campanula (many)
Aster (x3)
Verbena Bonariensis (x3)
Salvia Greggii (x3)
Salvia Hotlips (x2)
White Calamint (x2)
Nepeta Summer Magic (x2)
Russian Sage (x2)
Joe Pye Weed (x1)
Meadow Rue (x1)

For Beauty (Lillies)

Solar Attack
Blazing Lampsticks
Ruth Hanna Brown
Dragon Candy
Vitamin C
Welcome to my World
Purple Cheetah
Lollipop Kisses