GrassRoots Gardeners Share Their Gardens
The GrassRoots Growers were unable to host a spring event in 2020 due to CoVid restrictions, and then we had to cancel our annual popular Plant Sale in May for the same reason. But we, and our members, have been busy in our own gardens, doing what we love to do, mucking about in the soil, weeding plants that pop up in the wrong spot, and working hard to keep the heat from scorching the plants.
We'd like to share some of our gardening stories from this year and we encourage you to share yours. Send your stories and photos to [email protected] and we will add them here.
We'd like to share some of our gardening stories from this year and we encourage you to share yours. Send your stories and photos to [email protected] and we will add them here.
My Garden Story
By Emily VanderWey, GRG Steering Committee Member
The Summer of 2020 was busy, crazy, hot, and hectic! It flew by faster than I knew it, but there were many happy times and many pleasant surprises. I live on a farm, not far from the small town of Marlbank. It has been in my family since 1958.
This year our biggest successes in the garden were our sweet potatoes, purple dragon carrots, and an old German heritage yellow striped tomato. I was also very excited to grow peanuts!
We had a busy summer as not only do I live on a farm, but I work at another farm just up the road called Earth Haven Farm. I run their CSA program and help manage all tasks in the garden.
This summer for the first time my mother and I began milking our goats and making goat cheese. I am also a beekeeper, and this was the first year that I was able to harvest honey! This was also the first year that I have had bees survive the winter.
It was an interesting and awesome summer with many ups and downs. We proved to ourselves what we can get through in uncertain times and with challenging growing conditions. I am very grateful for this summer and already am feeling excited to think of growing more again next year. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy summer and can have a chance to rest this winter.
This year our biggest successes in the garden were our sweet potatoes, purple dragon carrots, and an old German heritage yellow striped tomato. I was also very excited to grow peanuts!
We had a busy summer as not only do I live on a farm, but I work at another farm just up the road called Earth Haven Farm. I run their CSA program and help manage all tasks in the garden.
This summer for the first time my mother and I began milking our goats and making goat cheese. I am also a beekeeper, and this was the first year that I was able to harvest honey! This was also the first year that I have had bees survive the winter.
It was an interesting and awesome summer with many ups and downs. We proved to ourselves what we can get through in uncertain times and with challenging growing conditions. I am very grateful for this summer and already am feeling excited to think of growing more again next year. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy summer and can have a chance to rest this winter.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Photos and Stories from Previous Years;
Photographs by Patty Day