Archive of my Gardens from 1997-1998

Background

When I lived in Southern California (see photo) I attempted a garden but a 6 year long drought made it difficult even when using drought tolerant plants. Plus the climate, being unlike anything with which I was familiar (I grew up in Massachusetts), and plants like palm trees and yucca of which I knew nothing; did not bode well for my gardening efforts. I did manage a few flowers like scabiosa and cosmos and zinnias but it was not a happy, rewarding experience. One year I did manage to overwhelm myself with cherry tomatoes to the extent that I was giving bowls of them to my neighbors, but I also only got one small cucumber. For living in that house 10 years it isn't much to brag about. (Of course for 6 of those years we were building an addition to our house, but that's another story.)

 

 

This is the view outside our 2nd story sitting room window. Those are the blue ridge mountains behind our treeline. It's hard to tell scale, but the mountain top is only 2 miles from my driveway!

 

Now that I have moved to Virginia, things are more like what I remember while growing up in New England, there are four seasons, and NO palm trees! Only one thing has messed up all my gardening expectations and that is; as soon as we moved into our own house in December, the following spring we were hit with another drought. And compared to southern California's drought this one is much worse. (Go to Drought here.)

Zones and Weather

I live in USDA Zones 7a in summer and 6b in winter although the last 2 winters have been ridiculously mild (and the current equally so). I am located in a valley east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, it's a shallow valley, the Blue Ridge are not very tall. (The Appalachian Trail runs along it.)

 

The winds that come through the pass are incredibly strong at times and wreck havoc with weak stemmed or tall plants so I try to avoid them, therefore, no delphinium. Ten evergreen trees have been planted as a windbreak but will not be effective for years and are mainly for the protecting the house anyway. Only one small flower garden benefits from being planted downwind of them.

 

I grow both vegetable and flower gardens. My vegetable garden is on the north side of the house but far enough out in the field that it stays in full sun. The flower gardens are scattered about the house and also get full sun. We have also planted dwarf apples trees and a couple of pecan whips (one has since died due to the drought). It has been difficult getting water to them and the wildlife have not been kind.

 

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Vegetable Gardening

 

Creating the vegetable garden

 

My vegetable garden has been in 2 different locations. The first in 1997 was too close to the house on the west side and received no sun till after 11 am. I used a drip system for irrigation, one dripper for each plant but it wasn't enough to compensate for the lack of rain. It was also a small garden only 20 x 15 feet and had only the tomatoes, a pepper or two, and a cucumber.

My Current Vegetable Garden

The garden I created in 1998 and still use is bigger than the first one (approximately 35 x 12 feet) and in full sun. Since my property is part of an old farm field the ground was mainly composed of stiff, tall grasses with a thick root system. I cut it down with a mower and my husband used his tractor to scrape up the top layer of grass, weeds etc., including the topsoil, and piled it all at one end. The advantage to this is much of the grass will die just from being buried and I still save the topsoil. We borrowed a neighbor's tiller to chop up what was laid bare, and I used a spade fork to get at the really nasty parts (dry clay) and remove rocks. We also have another neighbor who owns horses and has a rather large pile of nicely composted manure behind her barn. My husband then tilled a pickup-bed load of this in, as a replacement for the topsoil the first year. Unfortunately, last summer I broke my foot so the weeds and insects took over and by the end of the summer it was absolute chaos.

 

Note: In 1997 and 98 I also had a much larger plot nearer the woods devoted to corn and lots of it! Never got one cob. Between drought, deer, and ear worms, it was hopeless. Last year I planted less corn bu the drought kept most of it from even germinating. I also tried growing potatoes next to the corn bed but was too far away to really take good care of it and was devastated by potato beetles as well as the drought.

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Flower Gardening

 

My flower gardens have been more successful than my vegetable garden. For some reason weeding has been less difficult in the flower beds and they are not even mulched. I suppose it could be that they receive less water having plants that are much more drought tolerant than the tomato or cucumber. Some of these plants are cosmos, purple coneflower, and shasta daisy. At the end of 1998 I had three flower gardens, one in the front yard and two in the back. I do have a couple of older temporary beds farther out in the field where I planted bulbs before the house was built, but I intend to transplant those as soon as I find the time. In 1999 I decided to put a garden smack out in the middle of the back yard visible from the breakfast table. It is a half moon with a metal pole for a birdbath and feeder. Only the back rectangular half is planted (with cleome, annual salvia, oriental lilies, cosmos and zinnias.) The front moon half is still under black plastic because it was actually a last minute addition to incorporate a small circular bed beneath the pole. It has peach daylilies and sunflowers from seeds that fell from the feeder.

 

Herb Gardening

 

In 1998 I had a fairly successful herb garden smack on the center edge of my vegetable garden. The main problem was with the garden location since it was a bit of a trek to get the herbs for nightly cooking. Often I found myself reaching for the dried bottled version instead. This year I will need to rethink its location. Unfortunately, the door nearest the kitchen is in that morning shade location of my 1997 garden and thus unsuitable. Perhaps a pot garden somewhere by the front door on the east side of the house. In any case I grew Italian parsley which was so prolific that I was giving it away. Also, lemon basil, dill weed, which did not grow very tall and was rather dissapointing. My nearest neighbor had a similar problem with her dill which we both blame on the drought. I attempted chives but those got crowded out by weeds, I think growing them in their own pot might be a good idea.

 

In 1999 I did put a pot of herbs in the back yard. However, I made the mistake of planting sage in it and it has taken over. The chives are barely hanging on and the basil has disappeared.

 

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Last revised: January 30, 2001.