{"id":126,"date":"2008-12-09T20:09:56","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T04:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=126"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:00","slug":"returning-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/returning-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

RETURNING LIGHT
\n<\/font><\/font><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a gardener my life has always been defined by the seasons.\u00a0 Every year at this time I feel hope rise as I count down the days to the Winter Solstice.\u00a0 Of course, December twenty-second has only a tiny amount more daylight than December twenty-first, but I know that every day afterwards brings a little more light.\u00a0 In these difficult times, it seems especially important to remember the cyclical nature of all things.\u00a0 Gardeners have a built-in edge in that respect.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Five years ago, it seemed that everyone had abandoned dirt gardening in favor of buying expensive accoutrements for overblown “outdoor rooms”\u009d.\u00a0 Many of those who bought all of that equipment were too busy to use it.\u00a0 At the time I wondered if people would ever get back to basics.\u00a0 I should have known better.\u00a0 The world has turned and now thousands of people–from novice gardeners to experienced gardeners and even plant-phobic types who only go outside to use their gas grills–are creating vegetable gardens.\u00a0 Next spring retailers who used to have trouble getting rid of their tomato, pepper and lettuce seeds will probably be struggling to keep up with the demand.\u00a0 We may not get back to the Victory Gardens of World War II, but there will be a lot of money saving\/low carbon footprint\/organic\/locavore gardens popping up.\u00a0 Some suburbanites are even violating one of the prime suburban commandments and putting something interesting–rows of basil and beans–in their front yards.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As you wait for the return of the light, there are many things that you can do to keep the horticultural flame alive.\u00a0 If you are short on cash, it doesn’t matter, because most of them cost little or nothing.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Read:<\/strong> Whether you are contemplating a new vegetable garden, or just searching out some inspiration, there are a million good garden-related books.\u00a0 How-to information abounds in those books and on the internet.\u00a0 If you don’t know where to start, just enter a basic phrase, like “grow tomatoes,”\u009d in the search box of your web browser.\u00a0 You will be amazed at the information that comes up.\u00a0 To start yourself off with an excellent dose of inspiration, go to the local library and check out anything by the late Henry Mitchell, who was one of; if not the best, garden writers America has ever produced.\u00a0 Try his book, The Essential Earthman<\/em>.\u00a0 The language is accessible and the observations are trenchant and often very funny.\u00a0 If you are in the gift-giving mode, most of Mitchell’s books are available in inexpensive paperback editions.\u00a0 Any gardener who hasn’t read Henry Mitchell should start doing so now.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Plan: <\/strong>When I can’t get to sleep at night, I plan gardens in my head.\u00a0 Since sleeplessness is going around these days, I recommend this practice to others.\u00a0 I start with my own garden as it exists right now, and envision ways to make it better.\u00a0 I move things around mentally, reuniting groups of plants that have gotten separated as the garden grew larger.\u00a0 I think of gardens that I have visited in the past, remembering ideas that I wanted to try on my own property.\u00a0 In your dreams you can even start from scratch.\u00a0 Sometimes I find myself imagining a bed with only purple and orange-flowered plants.\u00a0 It is much safer to think such radical ideas out thoroughly in those minutes or hours before sleep comes than to launch into them unprepared and scare the neighbors.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If dreaming isn’t concrete enough for you, sketch out ideas on paper.\u00a0 You can even do this while commuting or waiting in line.\u00a0 Put your sketches and ideas in a file somewhere so you don’t lose them.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Buying: <\/strong>If you have money to spend on garden related items, including natural decorations, this holiday season, patronize local businesses.\u00a0 Margins for small nurseries and garden centers are thin in the best of times and every dollar counts now.\u00a0 Local business people have tended your lawns, sold you Christmas trees and schlepped mulch to your car in the good times.\u00a0 They often give discounts to local nonprofit groups.\u00a0 If you want them to be there for you next year and the year after that, support them now.\u00a0 You may not be able to buy the amount of merchandise that you purchased in years past, but every little bit helps.\u00a0 Remember that they are your neighbors and the health of the community depends on them.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When I think of hard times, I think of medieval monks–who were faced with the constant threat of pestilence, war and disorder–faithfully tending monastery gardens.\u00a0 I think of George Washington, taking time out from fighting a series of losing Revolutionary war battles to write home to Mount Vernon about his gardens and crops.\u00a0 I think of the English soldier in World War I who planted snowdrops in an empty mortar shell casing.\u00a0 It sounds clich\u00c3\u00a9d, but those images give me great hope.\u00a0 Ten years ago, author Thomas Cahill published How the Irish Saved Civilization<\/em>, a tribute to the many contributions of the Irish people over the millennia.\u00a0 There is ample reason to suppose that you could write a similar book about gardeners.\u00a0 It is something to keep in mind as we wait for the return of the light.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RETURNING LIGHT \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a gardener my life has always been defined by the seasons.\u00a0 Every year at this time I feel hope rise as I count down the days to the Winter Solstice.\u00a0 Of course, December twenty-second has only a tiny amount more daylight than December twenty-first, but I know that every day afterwards … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}