February is a Great Month for Garden Planning

From the pen of Master Gardener Sharon.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Robbie Burns

With seed catalogue(s) in one hand and my seed stash spread out on the dining room table, I’m ready for another garden planning session. Time to decide what I have, what I need to pick up at Seedy Saturday (March 14, 2020) and what I need to order or pick up at the nurseries. As I review my garden successes and failures over the last year, I’m amazed at the events that impacted my garden in the past few years. I realize that I can plan and plan but I am at the mercy of so many factors outside of my control.


Reflections - a short list of things my gardening buddies and I didn’t plan for:

● The neighbour’s cedar hedge ate the compost pile which resulted in no compost and a tangle of       cedar roots where the compost was supposed to be.

● My fabulous shade garden thrived until my neighbour chopped down their trees which resulted in no shade for the shade garden.

● My raised vegetable beds are in full sun....but those trees are getting bigger and throwing more shade which will result in less sun as the trees grow.

● Fence repairs which were planned but the contractor came early.....before I had time to move plants which resulted in some plant damage and plant loss.

● Self-seeding vegetables and perennial vegetables messing with my crop rotation plans which resulted in some head scratching and googling options.

● A donation of composted manure that inadvertently included creeping buttercup roots resulting in creeping buttercup everywhere the manure was applied...which was the entire &^*%&% garden.

● Invasive plants not obeying property lines resulting in them coming in from the neighbours.

● New shed changed wind patterns resulting in a cooler and windier zone in the garden.

What’s a gardener to do? Well this gardener is thinking of planning less....so I did some more research and found myself a gem - an interesting book by Margot Rochester

 “Down to Earth: Practical Thoughts for Passionate Gardeners.”

Here’s some comments from her on planning.

“Even a non planner has guidelines and here are mine: Locate garden spaces where they give the maximum pleasure. Feel free to expand. Forget the rules and follow your vision. Work no harder than absolutely necessary.
If I had planned my garden thirty years ago and adhered to a drawing and accompanying plant list, I would have saved myself more time and labor.....But the person who might have made that plan no longer exists. Her vision has morphed and mellowed. So has her garden. Like Popeye, “I yam what I yam,” and my garden is what it is, and, after all these years, we are happy together.”

Sounds like a plan to me.

“The best laid plans take 40 years to complete.” Robbie Burns