The Garden Through the Years-June

This is our sixth year gardening. It's been a journey, every year we learn a little more. The garden has not only taught us how to grow plants, but also how to have patience and hope. It's taught me the healing power of nature. It has helped my husband and I grow our marriage through planning the garden and working side by side. It's inspired me creatively.

Every year, I usually share a monthly update of my garden during the summer months. I'll continue the tradition this year, but I am also planning to share the garden's growth over the past six years. I'll show you what it looked like each month over the years.

We started our garden in 2017, about 10 months after we moved to the Pacific Northwest.  My husband built our raised beds and we put up temporary fencing around the perimeter to keep the deer out. It was cumbersome to get in and out of the garden and it didn't deter the deer or the bunnies. They found a way in regardless.

We grew tomatoes (too many), collards (too much), kale (not enough), cucumbers (failed), peas (perfect until the deer started sampling them), eggplant (failed). We didn't eat out of our garden much that year, but we learned a lot.

 In 2018, we added two small beds. One for a rhubarb plant and one for herbs. We also created a little seating area in the midst of the beds so we could sit in the evenings and enjoy our hard work. That's one of the most important things we learned in gardening-to make time to enjoy it. I don't know about you but sometimes I end up only being in my garden when I'm working on it. Which takes away from the enjoyment of it. Unfortunately, 2018 was a banner year for wasps and we rarely sat in the chairs because the wasps would could to sample our drinks and nibble our snacks.

We took down the perimeter deer netting and wrapped the beds in chicken wire. Which we cumbersome for me because I am a shorty and couldn't reach over the wire to pick the vegetables.

We grew tomatoes, more kale and collards, and some lettuce that year. Sadly, I didn't seem to keep a record of what I planted that year so I don't remember everything. For most of the other years, I can go back to my blog to see garden updates and, in 2020, I began a garden journal. Each year I get a little better about documenting our journey. As I gathered information for this post, I was surprised by how much I enjoy looking back at my past gardens and each year,

In 2019 we started to hit our stride. We removed the seating area, and my husband came up with a brilliant way to protect the beds from furry thieves. He created removable frames with chicken wire attached. This allowed me to remove a side so I could reach the plants. 

We grew tomatoes, tons of lettuce, and zucchini (too many). We tried our hand at radishes and carrots. While they weren't incredibly successful, they we successful enough for us to put them on our list to try again. We loved that they were cool weather crops and allowed us to begin eating from our garden early in the season.

2020 was one of our most successful garden years. We were finally getting the hang of it! We ate tons of radishes and carrots and I began experimenting with growing flowers. After three years, we were seeing how our efforts of organic gardening were starting to take hold. Birds would dig in our soil for worms which I read indicates a healthy soil. The birds were also plucking bugs off our plants for us. We planted calendula to keep the slugs at bay and surrounded our carrots with chives to ward off carrot flies. The pollinators busily did their jobs and word must gotten around because the wildlife in general seemed to increase it's presence in our yard. 

It's a lovely feeling, knowing that you are working in harmony with nature. You don't feel so alone in the world. Which was a good thing, since we were in throes of a historic pandemic.

Oh 2021! Last year, on June 26-30, we had a record-breaking heatwave. Temperatures got to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature normally unheard of for this area. It was miserable and we saw many of our plants, just starting to bud, fry in the heat and sun. It was heartbreaking. Some things came back, but it wasn't a banner garden year for us. 

But that's like life too, some years are good and some are bad. You just have to look for the little wins in the bad years and enjoy the good ones to their fullest.

And just like that, it's 2022. Another challenging year. This time, instead of a heat wave, we've had an unusually cold, cloudy, and wet spring. We've lost plants because they were water logged. Our rhubarb looks horrible as the damp weather resulted in a fungus that required we cut away infected leaves. No rhubarb dream bars or strawberry-rhubarb jam this year. When I was looking over our garden journal, I wrote that we had so much rhubarb last year, I didn't know what to do. What a difference a year makes!

We're trying to grow potatoes this year and so far they are doing great. All the rain is nothing to a crop that normally thrives in Ireland.

But we will continue to work with the weather, make small adjustments and see where Mother Nature takes us. We're forecasted for another heatwave this weekend-fingers crossed it stays below 100! I think, if we truly want to save the climate and the world, everyone should garden. Climate change takes on a whole new meaning when you are so personally affected.

Now, tell me all about your garden.