Sensible Gardening

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Zahrah Nasir

‘Over-gardening’ – may sound like a very strange term indeed but a surprising number of people, especially those new to gardening, are guilty of one or all. 

Of the following which, when considered in the sensible light of everyday life, can make growing your own food a complete and utter waste of increasingly precious, given the demands of the world gone mad that we struggle to survive in, time.

1. Over-digging.

2. Over-planting.

3. Over-feeding.

4. Over-watering.

5. Over-weeding.

6. Over-producing.

7. Over-maintaining.

   
   

In an attempt at making gardening, with the production if organic fruit, vegetables and herbs at the very top of the list, worth the effort you put in to it and, with a view to minimizing rather than maximizing, necessary hours of labor, let us take a look at the ‘Over’ departments one by one.

1.Over-digging :

First and foremost here is the strenuous act of digging which – unless you regard it as an outdoor substitute for having an expensive work-out in the gym – is, once the initial ‘create a garden’ has been done, often – and more often than not no matter what some books and experts advise – more destructive than productive. There is absolutely no need, as long as the unavoidable and arduous task of proper soil preparation was done, to dig the same patch of garden over and over again. This over-digging completely destroys healthy soil structure along with all of the beneficial creatures and invisible microorganisms inhabiting it and which , together and when left well alone, actively work 24/7 365 days a year to keep the soil in tip-top condition without any disturbance from you. Your contribution to soil, and therefore crop health, need only be limited to disturbing as little as possible during the planting process and then by top feeding the soil through repeated applications of organic compost/old, well rotted, organic manure and by the seasonal laying down of a nutritious, for the soil and crops, layer of weed suppressing, moisture retentive mulch. Just because the neighbour of the guy on the gardening program dig their gardens to extinction does not mean that you have to follow suit!

2. Over-planting: T

hink, long and hard and seriously before sowing/planting anything at all. People tend to think that they must sow all the seeds from a packet for example which, if germination is good, often means that there is not enough room to grow everything that pops up. In turn, this often leads to either a waste of seedlings – therefore time, money and effort as the seeds could have been stored in readiness for the next planting season, or, to overcrowding of seedlings which are then quite unable, due to competition for nutrients, water and sunlight, unable to thrive and crop as they should. All plants, edible ones and otherwise, require a certain amount of space in which to develop to their full potential. Giving it to them makes sense.

3. Over-feeding:

If soil has been correctly prepared before planting commences – this means that attention has been paid to drainage and that organic compost/manure etc has been worked in, then there is no need to waste time, money and labour on perpetually feeding plants with this, that and the other. This is even more so if you are being sensible and applying mulch. Over-feeding is detrimental to plant health not, this must be stressed, beneficial as it encourages plants to grow at an unnatural rate, to an unnatural size and this actively reduces their cropping performance as, by the time they reach this stage, they have often run out of ambition!

4. Over-watering:

Fact – More plants are killed off or develop fungal diseases from over-watering than from any other cause – with over-feeding running a very close second. Wasting copious amounts of increasingly precious water on everything in your garden each and every single day is, putting it bluntly, and sheer lunacy! Different species of plants have different water requirements and few, aside from tender leafed species such as lettuce during periods of hot weather, need to be given a drink everyday and most certainly not in the morning and again in the evening that some people, especially work-creating Malis, consider to be necessary. Plants, by the way, can appear to be wilting when they are actually suffering from an overdose of water. Water only in an evening, never in a morning as the sun then quickly evaporates water before plants have had time to take up the potential benefit. Check soil moisture content by sticking your finger in the earth first. The top layer may be dry but, just an inch below the surface where plant roots are, it may still be moist in which case there is no water needed. It is almost a good and labour saving idea to plant species with similar water requirements close to each other: Planting thirsty and drought tolerant species in the same bed does not make good gardening sense.

5. Over-weeding:

Some gardeners, in attempts at creating a ‘picture perfect’ garden, spend hours and hours hoeing or hand-weeding when, if beneficial layers of mulch have been applied and kept topped up as necessary, weeding is relegated, almost but not 100%, to being a thing of the past. Additionally, if you feel that you must weed, don’t do a hands and knees job every other day but allow the weeds to grow at least 3 – 4 inches high so that they, as long as they have not reached the seeding stage of course, are useful additions to the compost heap/bin.

6. Over-producing:

Before planting it is wise, no matter how many relatives and friends you have waiting, to work out which vegetables, fruits and herbs are worth your while growing and how much you can use. For instance, people merrily plant far too much lettuce as a matter of routine and, with freezable varieties too, you can, no matter how much jam/pickle/preserve you make, only consume so much and a freezer packed full of courgettes isn’t much good when you discover that you have planted far too many tomatoes and are sick and fed up of turning them in to ketchup. Check over how much of which fresh produce you use on a weekly basis and then, this is eminently sensible, think of the cost of each one too. Unless you have tons and tons of space in which to produce all the organic food you need, it is wise to opt to grow those which are highest priced in the market rather than those that, in season, are relatively cheap. Producing useable amounts of expensive items makes far more sense that having, for example, a garden dull of cabbages that no one wants to eat and which, when time, labour, water etc are factored in, it may have been simpler to just go out and purchase as required.

7. Over-maintaining:

There is a distinct trend for emulating the garden photographs appearing in glossy magazines irrespective of the climate hey happen to be in and this, although you may not agree, is ridiculous. Usually very costly to create and certainly expensive and labour intensive to maintain, such gardens are, on the whole, usually nothing but show pieces and yes, they may be beautiful to look at but are rarely either functional or predominantly ‘edible’ in own, increasingly fickle, climate. A garden should not demand all of your available time – and more – to upkeep. It is far better to create a useful garden, minus all of the difficult to care for fiddly bits, which produces lots of organic food and in which you also have time to simply chill out and just ‘Be’. Think about this and you will realize that it does make sense!