Gardening in the Time of COVID
By Michelle Mather, GRG Steering Committee Member
Two years ago I wrote an article for our local newspaper “The Scoop” entitled “Why I Garden.” I wrote;
“Why do I garden? I sometimes wonder that myself. Especially during a period of drought, when it takes every bit of my limited energy to drag watering cans out to my gardens, hoping to keep my plants alive long enough for when the rains (hopefully) return. Or when some pest devours some plant that I have lovingly nurtured, or when a sudden windstorm knocks over a row of tall, beautiful sunflowers.
So why do I garden? I garden for those times when I go out to discover the first hint of colour in the drab landscape of early spring. I garden to enjoy the buzz and busyness of pollinators visiting my gardens on a sunny afternoon. I also garden to enjoy the burst of flavour that only just-picked veggies from my own garden can provide. But mostly I garden because it forces me to get out and appreciate and connect with nature …”
I thought about those words as I sat down to share some stories from this year. This year, in the time of CoVid, gardening became more important to me than ever. Planning for my gardens in late winter/early spring provided me with a much-needed distraction from the constant barrage of scary news about the pandemic. Growing plants from seeds allowed me to shift the focus of my nurturing tendencies away from my quarantined grandchildren and on to tiny green sprouts. And during my infrequent trips to the grocery store where I witnessed bare shelves that had normally been laden with fresh veggies I became more determined than ever to grow as much of my own food as possible.
I wasn’t alone in these feelings, as suggested by the number of new (and newbie) members to my various Facebook gardening groups, and the difficulty in sourcing seeds as many online seed companies dealt with a surge in orders and out-of-stock inventories.
This was not a good year to become a gardener. As my husband and I, both seasoned gardeners, struggled to battle with pests and uncooperative weather conditions, I often remarked to him that new gardeners would be discovering a newfound appreciation for the food at farmer’s markets and the grocery stores, after struggling so hard to keep their veggie gardens alive.
However, as is often the case, for every garden disaster there were also garden successes, and this is what keeps us gardeners coming back, year after year.
In the veggie garden we weren’t able to acquire the usual BTK (a biological insecticide) that we spray on our brassicas to slow down the damage caused by cabbage loopers. So our rows and rows of cauliflower, broccoli and cabbages were decimated by these little pests and we ended up with very few worth eating. We also had challenges sourcing onion sets this year and so we were much later planting our onions. Consequently they are small, and we ended up having to buy onions at the grocery store this year, which we haven’t had to do in many, many years!
Our corn was fabulous, once we learned to outsmart the raccoons. Our green peppers, which we’ve learned to grow protected in an unheated greenhouse, were big and beautiful.
In the flower gardens, our rows and rows of gladiola bulbs, suffered terribly from the lack of rain. Even though we tried to keep them irrigated, when they finally flowered, the flowers had as many brown patches as coloured patches, and so we never did bother to cut any. Normally we share bouquets of glads with our friends and family members.
Luckily the zinnias love the heat and the sun and so we have rows and rows of them to cut and fill vases with.
And our sunflowers never disappoint! We have patches of them that we planted and groups of them that were planted by the birds. They are tall and proud, no matter what the weather, and their cheery sunshiny “faces” provide not only colour to our gardens but food for our feathered friends.
Gardening in a Time of COVID has not been easy, but it has been rewarding.