An Experiment with Corn and a Sister

As we know, gardening must be viewed as an experiment. You try something new and witness the outcome much later: in a month, by the end of fall, perhaps by next summer.

Our Three Sisters planting of corn, squash and beans has never been successful. The squash and beans have almost always failed to grow. And why?

RABBITS

To demonstrate that rabbits had been consuming two of our "sisters", we planted four corn in a bean bed that we had protected from rabbits by chicken wire. Here we have bountiful beans growing, and they are growing up the corn. It's too late to add squash into the planting for this year.

Corn and Beans: Two of the Three Sisters

So: next year, we must protect all the Three Sisters beds with higher chicken wire. Or ideally, all the Produce Garden with higher chicken wire.

A Sunny Day in the Parking Lot Garden

A Sunny Day in the Parking Lot Garden

I took this photograph around 11 in the morning with the native plants backlit by the sun in the southeast. Lots of insects in the blossoms, crickets "cricketing" about me. 

This is a good example of interplanting: plants of varying heights supporting each other. And no mulch to be seen. the native plants have grown together, covering the mulch, forcing out the weeds.

Braiding the Garlic

Garlic is harvested in summer when the tops turn yellow. Once dug up, garlic can be left on the ground to dry. We decided an alternative approach. Braid the tops together then hang them in the shed. Our braiding effort was ~okay. We'll have to plant more and get further practice next year.

Here is the result:

A "Lee Valley" Moment

Renewing the Road Garden

On July 2, I wrote a blog about a design issue we had with the Road Garden: if plants are grouped in blocks, then, after they have blossomed, there is nothing new to obscure spent plants. Also, if the plants fail, then an entire area opens up to weeds. In the Road Garden, areas committed to Purple Prairie Clover, Yarrow, Prairie and Showy Goldenrod failed.

Road Garden planted on 1 June 2015

Left areas

Right area

   Here is our solution to that issue: intermix plants.

Road Garden replanted on 16 July 2018

We have intermixed several varieties in each area. They have different coloured blossoms and bloom at different times. And they vary in height. We planted the tallest ones first so that we could get a sense of where the "bulk" of the garden will be present. By the way, you will notice that the new plugs for the right hand area were intermixed with the existing Three Flowered Avens and Prairie Dropseed.

Here are the after photographs. Frankly, you do have to look closely to see the 180 plant plugs. We should start to see the results next year but, as you know, it takes native plants three years to come into full growth.

Left area after replanting

Right area after replanting

An Issue with Garden Design

In 2015, our two native plant areas, the Road Garden and the Parking Lot Garden, were planted in different styles. Three years later, one style is demanding more maintenance from us. 

Plants in the Parking Lot Garden were positioned randomly - we literally opened up each five-pack plug case and tossed the plugs here, here, there, here and over there. The resulting bed is a confusion of multiple layers and colours:

Parking Lot Garden in 2017

For example, Three Flowered Avens blossom in May. After blossoming, here are the grey-pink seed heads of Three Flowered Avens showing through other plants that will soon grow above them.

Mid June: grey-pink seed heads of Three Flowered Avens just showing above the surrounding plants

Plants in the Road Garden were arranged in individual clumps and positioned front to back based upon their heights. Here is our original layout - creases, mud, comments and all. Notice that the Three Flowered Avens were eventually planted in the lower right hand corner:

Here are Three Flowered Avens in the Road Garden this spring:

Now at the beginning of July, the Three Flowered Avens have gone to seed. There is nothing else to grow in this area and, indeed, some of the other plant groupings have failed. There are now unsightly blank areas filling with weeds, demonstrating gardening failure. These need to be weeded and replanted - right now!

Yarrow and Goldenrod gone - and, off picture, just to the right of the Giant Hyssop, spent Three Flowered Avens

The spent and failed areas of the Road Garden are filling with opportunistic weeds. Actually, that is exactly what weeds are - opportunistic. Whereas in the Parking Lot Garden, when spent plants and failed plants occur, these areas are smothered by surrounding native plants. One does not notice this natural activity in a randomly planted garden. In a tightly designed planting area, any failure is totally obvious.

So, in conclusion, plant randomly and let nature do the maintenance.

One caveat, there is random and then there is random. But that will be the topic of a future post.