Planning Makes Perfect

Yesterday, while listening to Amy Ockerlander – a Garden Hotline Educator from Seattle Tilth – talk about mulch and the other delights of organic gardening, I quietly tore a sheet of paper out of my Master Gardener spiral notebook. It started out innocently enough – a list of things to do that occurred to me while listening to the lecture. But before I knew it, I had a vision of a wild flower garden in my head and a list of tasks I'd need to do to bring it to fruition.

You don't have to tell me twice how lucky I am to have a canvas of a yard to whip into a masterpiece with all my new knowledge. If there were more hours of daylight right now, I think I'd barely see the inside of my house. Sure I've done a lot to it already and a blank canvas it is not. But the beauty of gardening is that it is an ever-evolving process. "Empty" spaces can be filled and tired places can be reinvented. And that is exactly what the side of my house is – tired and in need of some botanical TLC.

The plan that got scribbled out over the course of an afternoon lecture is to turn that worn-out, uneven strip of grass into a beautiful corridor of perennial wild flowers that leads to my garden and beacons beneficial pollinators. I've been pining over seed packets of lovely echinacae and chamomile flowers, knowing that I'd need to find a more permanent place to plant them. But instead of rushing out to buy those seeds as my impulses are so urging me to do, I am going to use this season to lay the foundation by having Jake put in a new paver path and by building the soil in my future wild flower beds.

This brings me to sheet mulching, the Master Gardener gem of the week and catalyst for the plan that keeps on growing. I am going to use the sheet mulching technique to smother the grass, carve out bed space, and build the soil – no shovel required. Apparently, all I need to do is put wet cardboard down on the surface I am going to prepare and then cover that with whatever organic material I have (fallen leaves, straw, sawdust). Then, it breaks down over time, helping add nutrients to the soil, while also smothering out grass and weeds in the process. I guess if I start the process in the fall, I'll have beds by spring with almost no labor. All I need to do is be patient, but I can hardly wait!

And if that wasn't enough, all my seeds came in the mail last week. It's just about seed starting time and I've got lots of yummy vegetables in the works. I'm going to try and start a salsa garden hoop house (a plastic cloche over the bed throughout the summer) with tomatillos, red bell peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, and cilantro. I bought lots of new heirloom seeds from Seed Savers, with the hope of being able to save seeds from twice as many vegetables as last year. I am most excited about the Trail of Tears black beans that I'm going to grow this year. I discovered them at the farmers' market last year. Can you imagine eating a pot of beans with salsa, all grown in your own backyard? My mouth is watering just thinking about it!