Hot Gardening

Some days you feel as creative as a lump of wet clay. Other days, the creative juices flow. For unaccountable reasons, mine have been flowing, though the days have been hot and sticky. The present creative burst is a good thing, because my garden is in need of a considerable amount of attention. I have a patch of raised bed that is doing nothing except serving as a setting for a large groundhog hole. I am going to remake the bed even though conditions outdoors are miserable. What’s more, I am going to remake it with supplies on hand. At this time of year I always hear the siren song of garden center plant sales, but at the moment the ready cash supply is low. The garden thrives, but the computer, dishwasher, washing machine and string trimmer all died during a recent eight-week time span. Much as I might wish, I cannot cut costs by making a new dishwasher out of spare parts. I can, however, rejuvenate a garden corner with spare plants.
If you are a cat owner, you know that everything starts with cat litter. I have a pan of used cat litter in the cellar that needs to be changed out. The operation will take less than ten minutes and the cellar is at least ten degrees cooler than anywhere else. The litter is going directly into the groundhog hole in the raised bed. This time-honored tactic seems to deter the groundhog—at least for awhile—while making good use of noxious material. Once the groundhog hole is filled up, I can start on the renovation of the surrounding area.
The end of the raised bed is in partial shade, so I’ll replant with shade tolerant species. The area is already home to a large hosta and an equally large Helleborus niger or Christmas rose, both of which will stay put. Three heucheras languish in the front. They are perfect for the light conditions, but barely flourishing. I suspect the problem has to do with the raised bed’s excellent drainage. When water arrives at the heucheras’ feet, it doesn’t stay around long enough to do them much good. I will lift them and line the planting holes with newspaper, which is an old beach gardening trick. The newspaper slows down the absorption of water, giving the roots time to take it up. This should cause an almost immediate uptick in quality of life for the heucheras. While I am at it, I’ll divide another heuchera, which is enjoying middling success in a different part of the garden. Both divisions will be replanted in newspaper-lined holes, with one going into the raised bed. Everything will be mulched with a layer of wet newspaper covered with poor man’s mulch, consisting mainly of needles sloughed off by the neighbors’ hemlock tree. All of the work will be done in ten or fifteen minute increments, which is all I can tolerate on days when both the temperature and humidity percentage are over eighty.
I don’t have enough heuchera to plant up the entire section of the raised bed, so I will scavenge some additional plants. I can give the large hosta company by dividing one of its variegated relatives from the front yard. This operation is not hard as long as you have a sharp spade and/or a sharp garden knife. The hosta in front will barely feel the pain, especially if I curry its favor by giving it a big drink of water.
The bed also needs some height in the back. For that, I will steal a large, perennial foxglove from another spot in the garden where it is presently crowding a rose bush. The species is Digitalis ambigua or yellow foxglove, which grows about two feet tall. The ambiguas have spread nicely, but not aggressively in other parts of the garden and I am hoping that his one will do the same. I may give it a companion planting of blue-purple spiderwort or tradescantia, which also grows in abundance in various places in the garden. The foxglove and the tradescantia will get the same treatment as the heuchera, with newspaper-lined planting holes and abundant blankets of mulch.
The bed gets progressively sunnier towards its middle, with a daylily and a single bearded iris presently in residence. I’ll move the bearded iris to a better home and probably fill up the space with additional daylily divisions from the abundant supplies on hand. I have some old-fashioned ‘Hyperion’ daylilies in the front that cry out for division every time I pass them. I’ll relieve their distress and improve the back bed all in one operation.
At the end of the process, the bed will look better because it will contain plenty of plants and a cover of mulch. There is no doubt that it would look better still if I had gone to the garden center and bought a collection of plants in peak condition. However, gardening, like everything else, is about choices and this time, I chose household appliances. Two months from now I’ll still have the appliances, plus a raised bed full of healthy, carefully tended plants. Time is the gardener’s friend.