Gardening in 2020
By Angela Saxe, GRG Steering Committee Member
This summer has been a struggle for most gardeners: the heat and accompanying drought stressed out all the plants, even the hardy, long established perennials. Our well is not plentiful, so we depend on our rain barrels, but this year our barrels ran dry very quickly and we were forced to draw water from our well. It takes a lot of work to hand water all those plants!!
We followed the weather channel and watched as rain clouds skirted around the Tamworth area. Friends reported rain in Westport and Kingston, but nothing here. Occasionally we had a sprinkling that evaporated within minutes. Finally, the rains came this month and nature blushed green again, flowers perked up and the veggies grew and fruited before our eyes.
We had some successes: terrific beets, plentiful greens and herbs, delicious eggplant but our sweet peppers developed rotten bottoms and were filled with earwigs. Has anyone come across this before? The tomatoes have just started: plum tomatoes don't look great but the cherry and small tomato varieties are delicious. Meanwhile friends complained about that their squash and broccoli yields were low.
As for my flower garden, the day lilies were spectacular but many of my peonies didn't flower. I didn’t see a single Asiatic lily but the roses loved the heat. I know, each year is different, but I am disappointed that I didn’t see a single flower from the late blooming clematis. But right now, the zinnias are in full bloom, cheerful and sparkling in their bright colours.
This year's infestations of caterpillars/moths had a significant impact on the garden and surrounding woods. So far the gypsy moths are nowhere near as abundant here as I've seen them in other areas, but the white satin moths were everywhere and feasted on many of the small shrubs.
Every gardening year is different and each one has its own challenges but gardening has given me hours of sanity, balance and joy during this pandemic. I went outside and spent hours digging, weeding and planting without thinking about Covid, politics or all the other tragedies confronting people around the world.
I am thankful for my garden.