Cabin Fever?

If you are trying to escape the bonds of “cabin fever,” you can rejoice with the fruits of spring!

Have you found yourself thinking year after year, “Sometime I will plant a garden”, but you have never taken the time? Well, what better time than now, to take the plunge, and start planning? Many lessons, experiences, and memories can be grown in the garden, the choices are endless. Gardens are nature’s silent teacher… patience, beauty, scent, tastes, textures, foods, medicines, peace and joy are all grown in a garden. Make your choice.

I wrote a few weeks ago about my love of nature, flowers and later herbs which all began in my grandmother’s garden. The shades of all the different colors, scents, textures and sounds are alive in the garden. Plants and gardens have been woven throughout my life. Even when first dating my husband, he would quiz me about different shrubs and plants and I would tell him about flowers and herbs; this became a challenge for us both. We have continued through the years to make plants an integral part of our life. We recreated historical gardens, and many different theme gardens at our previous 1835 home. Theme gardens became my passion as they are endless. In fact, after Miss Ruth came to my garden and herb shop many years ago, one of my favorite themes was born. As a result, this theme continued to delight the second grade of The Heritage School for many years to follow, even one year being featured in Southern Living magazine. These elements of nature are still very much a part of who I am and what I value today, keeping me at peace with the world around me and feeling a sense of accomplishment when I am able to use what I grow, even if on a much smaller scale. I love that much of the joy we feel and lessons we learn about life, begins in a garden.

A garden can be as large or as small as you want, but my first recommendation is to start small and plan. The first question, you might ask is, “What do I want to grow?" Depending on your answer, whatever you choose to grow, think of it in terms of “your theme." The choices are endless, but I do feel developing a theme helps make your garden much more interesting. Next you must pick a spot for your garden. Ideally gardens will need four to six hours of sunlight a day. Drainage and soil are another important consideration. While most plants, except for succulents, need more moisture than not, you will not want them sitting in water either as the roots will rot. While the Georgia clay has good nutrients for feeding your plants, it needs to be amended, which means adding an ingredient which allows breaking up the dense clay, such as potting soil, peat, sand or some porous medium. Doing this allows the roots to spread and grow!

The main inspiration of this writing is to get you all excited to plan and plant a garden. I don’t want to bog you down with a bunch of boring instructions. Just pull out your pencil, paper, and imagination and start planning! You can pick any theme you want and make it the backbone of your garden, from a theme as simple as your favorite color to as involved as based on plants from a favorite book. In the days ahead I will be describing the plant possibilities for different themes; it might just spark an idea and the inspiration needed to take the garden path!