As much as I would like to say that our secret garden is green, thriving, and completely amazing I cannot. For a portion of my sad admission I have to say that I am at fault. Being out of control busy the past month certainly has not helped any form of true consistency that I would normally like to have.
However, as much as I would take blame for my suffering landscape it only is responsible to mention the other major player in this equation. Our region is suffering from an unusually long heat spell coupled with an intense drought, and of course these doubled difficulties have made fires in our area a majestic unstoppable beast.
Although we do no personally purchase hay for use, a good indication of our areas’ sufferings is most easily demonstrated in the prices of the necessary cattle feed tripling recently. These high hay cost effect animals and livestock in a sad way as they either find themselves sold or grimly, eaten.
In an effort to be as responsible with water as we can, without experiencing financial waste, we first water our garden as it produces food and we put in an initial investment. Next our berries, shrubs, and trees receive attention as replacing them would also be costly. Our floral friends and grass receive the least of our wet attentions and do truly look it.
Our grand plans for our yard this year were once again halted as the heat was something we could not trifle with. However, I cannot report all negative without honestly mentioning some of the benefits our current weather pattern has allowed us. First, we have paid better attention to our garden, although the heat has taken it’s toll, we really put in extra efforts the past couple of weeks trying to keep it happy. We are harvesting beets and carrots, we look forward to several more green beans, our peas did not survive the bunnies this year, but we have pumpkins, watermelons, and tomatoes galore to look forward to soon. Nearly all of the berries produced nothing this year, but they are growing and we are better understanding how they each work.
The heat has afforded us a better appreciation for the mulch that we lay year after year. Although before I spread mulch mostly for eye appeal and to help decrease weeds, now I truly appreciate it’s more appropriate use.
The drought has also helped us to focus on the type of plants we will be planting next year on the side of our home. We have for several years neglected this area of our landscaping until we knew for sure what it was we could dream up for those sections. Now we know that planting our green friends that are better suited to our interesting mix of temperatures is key to low maintenance landscaping. The area we live in will often times experience winters that have below zero temperatures that will last for several weeks at a time. Our summers provide stretches of heat above 100 degrees that is extremely dry heat also at times lasting more than a week at a time. We are prone to wind, lots of snow, an occasional tornado and some occasional ice. Our planning system has been improved by this years extra dryness.
Should I also mention we better appreciate the rising cost of water in our area or would that be going to extremes?
We have dreamed of putting in a sprinkler systems for years now, and you can see without doubt the people in our area who have sprinkler systems and also use them. I can see the value of an investment in a better irrigation system to keep alive the investments we have already made in our landscaping. That appears to be an upcoming fall project, depending on how busy Husbands work schedule continues to be.
~Shy Willow
picture source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/