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Right in my Own Backyard - Who Says Gardens Have To Be Big? - by Brandt Carter
posted: Apr. 20, 2023

Right in my Own Backyard header

Who Says Gardens Have To Be Big?
Gardening can take whatever scale you want. It has been many variations to me: casual pots of flowers, a large vegetable patch, perennial landscaping, and themed herb collections. Some years it has consumed most of my summer; sometimes I've barely gardened, with grass cutting absorbing my focus. This is what's amazing about gardening. It can be all-consuming or it can be minimal.
In the past several years I have been scaling back. I want to do less maintenance, planting, and weeding on my acre - but I still want a garden. I started down-sizing after a knee replacement. My perennial gardens that took lots of tending, thinning, and trimming got redesigned for easy care. My formal garden was restaged with mounded beds planted with new bulbs, hostas, and daylilies. I chose plants that were almost self-sufficient. The new, raised flower beds are easier to weed, and drainage is improved. I actually moved the plants from one front yard garden to other parts of the yard or gave them to friends, then let the space become lawn. I have stopped acquiring new plants, choosing rather to divide existing plants and create massed plantings.
Even as committed as I now am to down-sizing, I cannot give up growing produce. Granted, I no longer plant lots of tomatoes, carrots, beets, beans, corn, cucumbers, and zucchini. I have traded off farming for just a couple tomato plants and herbs that I use daily in my cooking.
This year I am going to have a very small garden. In pots and a sunny plot about eight feet square I will grow my herbs. My favorites are basil, rosemary, chive, bronze fennel, lavender, sage, tarragon, salad burnet, marjoram, and blue balsam peppermint. I add cuttings to fresh tossed salads and crescent rolls. Herbs are such a necessity in my cooking that I could never give up my herb garden. I will also scatter striped sunflower seeds to grow a little food for the goldfinches.
In reigning in my gardening habit, I will resist buying new cultivars or being tempted by plants that require special tending. I am slowly aligning my desires with my capabilities. I continue to garden because this is my connection with nature and its cycle of planting, growth, and harvest. So, too, I invite you to look at your yard, think about gardening that suits you, and go for it!



Brandt Carter, artist, herbalist, and naturalist, owns Backyard Birds at 2374 E. 54th Street. Visit her web site www.feedbackyardbirds.com. Email your bird questions to Brandt@BroadRippleGazette.com




brandt@broadripplegazette.com
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