Honey, We're Home!

Could mint possibly overtake the earth? Maybe in season, if given the chance. But I'm not going to do that. This year, there will be no summer boycott of the garden. There's just too much to do.

Prior to this year's deep freeze, I had all sorts of gardening plans and concerns. It's not that my concerns weren't valid, but more pressing issues arose. We had to evacuate our house.

We moved back in a few weeks ago. We're still working on renovations, but it's getting there. And in our absence, the garden grew wild. Wild, wild, wild. Whatever the freeze didn't affect, neglect did. It wasn't our intention. We were gone. Now that we're home, the healing process (for the garden) has begun, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us. And the oddest thing has happened to me. 

I'm no longer worried about any of it.

I'm pretty sure that my new outlook has something to do with the partial destruction of our house and the radical way things were rushed into proper perspective. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. 

It's fun not to fret. Surprise!

For one thing, the birds and squirrels and other creatures are still at home in our garden. That makes me happy.

Due to a large number of hardy plants, especially natives, our garden sustained less damage than many others. But there were some inevitable casualties. Texans lost a lot of citrus to the freeze. In our own little garden, we lost our Meyer lemon and two blood orange trees as well as our olive. But our fig, peach, and kumquat trees prevailed. So did our brambles and blueberries.

A few perennials died, but most have returned with a flourish. I'm not entirely surprised that some roses actually succumbed. They won't be the first that we've lost. We might have had over a hundred rose shrubs on the acreage, but they don't do well on this property, no matter where we plant them. I'm not going to replace them. I love roses, but there are so many other wonderful options.

In our flower beds, despite, even underneath the weeds, perennials are coming up. One bed overtaken by mulberry weed (L. fatoua villosa) and poison ivy revealed several Thai basil plants when cleared. Certain basils are so great about reseeding.

​The raised beds are buckling and will soon tumble down if we don't take care. But they're not tumbling yet and our plants don't seem worried. Our cabbages are beautiful, the root vegetables healthy, and tomato vines overwhelmingly overgrown.

And I've decided that I will continue planting in those beds until we absolutely have to rebuild. If it takes another year, so what? Will our loved ones not love us anymore if our garden looks a little ragged? Maybe I'll be able to bribe them with some fresh, organic produce.   :)

Here's to our gardens and another summer season. May your gardening days be long and pleasant and your summer harvest bountiful.