Why I love Gardening

The Old Southern used to be all about roots, about who your people were.

The New Southern is a richer, more balanced blend of folks, including many warm and wonderful ones who are Southerners by choice, not by birth. But for gardeners, the Southern is still– and always will be-about roots.

Because of the relative warmth of our climate, our soils never get deeply affected by frost. Even in the dead of winter, a Southern garden is alive. You can stand in the middle of a cold, quiet garden and almost feel the actionall those roots vibrating deep in the unfrozen ground beneath your feet.

There is, in fact, no absolute dormant season for most of us in the Middle and Lower South. You can get by with ignoring your garden, perhaps, during the worst heat of summer and for the whole two weeks of winter. It might ease up enough then, if you’re lucky, and you’ll be able to catch back up. It’s sort of like running for a freight train as it slows for a level crossing. There are pauses as one clutch of plants plays out and another bunch is still in the process of springing up to replace it. But the Southern garden, just like that steaming freight train, never comes to a full stop.

Consequently, neither does the Southern gardener. Sometimes it seems there’s too much to deal with. Mud and floods and fire ants, droughts that crack the cotton-depleted soil, wild temperature swings, and wilder weeds are just a few of our regular gardening companions. It can make you want to fling your trowel into the azaleas and head back into the air conditioning. But in exchange for all of this, we are given the most remarkable gift of constancy-constant color, constant growth, constant participation in nature-the constancy of those never-sleeping roots.

A lot of folks say there’s no rest for the weary. What I’ve learned, as a Southern gardener, is that there’s really no rest for the blessed. And this is where I want my garden to grow– right here in the Southern, where I will always, every day, be able to feel the living roots.

Favorite Tips

The garden editors at Southern Living are all enthusiastic, hands-on gardeners. Their collective experience is impressive and diverse, based on their individual interests. Here’s what they’ve learned after all these years.

If you’re planting in the ground, make the time to prepare your soil. Just doing this will take care of 90% of the work needed for having a healthy garden.

One universal tip from our garden editors is to get a soil test so you know what you’re dealing with.

In areas with rocky or poor soils, don’t fight Mother Nature. Making raised beds to grow vegetables and flowers is easier than struggling to fix problem soil.

Look at plants when they are blooming, and buy them when they’re not. By the time they’re in bloom at the nursery, they are past the perfect planting stage.

Whether you’re planting a cell-pack annual or a potted shrub, be sure to water the plant thoroughly before sticking it in the ground.

Always check out a nursery’s guarantee and return policy before making a major plant purchase. Some will warrant trees and shrubs for a year and replace a dead plant; some will not.

If you’re buying lots of one kind of azalea or crepe myrtle, buy them all in bloom. That way you won’t be stuck with 14 red plants and 2 lavender ones.

If you’re using pine straw as mulch, consider shredding it first. The chopped needles are easy to dust off any plants that might have gotten buried.

The key to watering if you don’t have an irrigation system is to get a goodquality, kink-free hose.

Add organic material as you start a new flowerbed, and replenish seasonally, before each planting.

Always plant annuals with a timedrelease fertilizer.

Near the end of July, cut back flowering annuals halfway. Feed with a liquid blossom booster, and you’ll have fabulous flowers in September and October.

Wait until fall and winter to move established plants that need relocating.

If you’ve just moved to a house with a preexisting garden, watch the garden through a full cycle of seasons. Then you’ll know what’s really there, like hidden clumps of bulbs or low spots that hold water after rain.

Spring is great, but learn to love autumn. It’s a superb season in the Southern garden, with gorgeous flowers and great weather. It’s also the best time to plant perennials, roses, trees, and shrubs.

Finally, the editors offer some unusual gems of advice.

- Always stretch a bit before taking on any big gardening task.

- Try planting a tall rosebush next to your birdbath. As the blooms fade and drop into the bowl, it creates a floating potpourri.

- Use branches and twigs to stake up flowers that have fallen over. The natural shapes work well in the garden, and you can’t beat the price.

- Build a compost heap. Experienced gardeners always have one and pretend it’s to improve the soil. Actually it’s a guilt-free place to put the corpses of plants we’ve inadvertently killed.

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~ by trilochankaur on February 7, 2007.