It's already been more than a year at **the** Carudan Garden. It's grown a lot-- check out our instagram @carudangardens for sporadic updates. And this is our. . . log?

I don’t have the time or words to articulate all the important things I've learned in a year, but I hope to gather a few thoughts that might be helpful to others who would like to start a garden. My plan here is to lay out this huge list of ideas and concepts and eventually elaborate on specific ideas, one post at a time. I'm sure my first one will be either about seasons or compost.

A complete ecosystem exists in (relative) equilibrium. Balance tends to maintain itself

The cycle of nature (Growth -> Death -> Decomposition -> Birth -> Growth) forces completion or otherwise intervention to complete that cycle.

• Modern Americans have a child-like aversion to death and decomposition. They want to sequester the gross things as far away as possible, so they can forget that things die and decay.
• Mulch becomes something to buy from a store, because nature's mulch has been meticulously leafblown and raked, bagged to be hauled away.
• Fertilizer comes in plastic bottles and liquid extracts, replacing the natural decay of organic material to enrich the soil.
• Insecticides and habitat destruction destroy local (and global, btw) insect populations, leading to reduced pollination, decomposition, and nutrient cycling.
• Completing this cycle requires the presence of the nasties-- the dead, the rotting, the bugs. We need to get comfortable with compost piles, insect populations, unsightly tree snags, and the occasional bit of muck.

Composting is an amazing first step towards restoring the cycle.

• Waste becomes a resource. I could write a book on this. I'll probably write a post on this soon. But come on. Part of the reason I always lick my dinner plate clean is that I hate throwing away food. It's nasty, y'all. It sits in a plastic bag and decays. But when you throw that same waste into the ground? It just becomes more soil. It's magic.
• Soil and organic matter is so important to fixing degraded, sapped soil. Georgia red clay cannot sustain a lot of plants. My blackeyed susans (notoriously resilient flowers) keep drowning in the waterlogged clay during these weeks-long rains.

A pond goes a long way.

• Ponds attract and breed dragonflies. Dragonflies eat mosquitoes.
• Mosquitoes will spend time laying eggs in the pond. Other creatures (tadpoles, fish, dragonflies) will eat the larvae. Delicious.
• Wildlife loves water, for the same reason that we love water. Especially in the hot Georgia summer.
• A pond is the easiest way to store rainwater. Let it accumulate during rainy seasons, then use it during the dry seasons. All it takes is a simple pump to divert the water as needed. It's Keynesian waternomics.
• A water feature completes the ecosystem. A single body of water can give access to frogs, other amphibians whose names I don't know, thirsty/hot birds, so many cool insects, a ton of swampy plants, and maybe even ducks one day. I hope.

A larger system can give stronger support to individuals

• A plant in a pot will run out of water very quickly compared to the same plant in the ground. Fungal mycorrhizae (which are like their roots) connect these plants' roots to vast underground networks supplying nutrients and water.
• Under the Georgia sun, a companion tree or bush can provide essential shade during the hottest parts of the day.
• Pollinators will visit larger groups of plants compared to single plants

The ecosystem relevant to our gardens is larger than we might think. And larger still.

• Thinking about the soil is great, and even about shade and about the whole yard, but where are we, in terms of the biome? How can we adapt to not just hot Georgia summers, but specifically the Piedmont Plateau, in the oak-hickory forest that dominates my neighborhood?
• How do invasive plants and animals tip the ecosystem out of balance? Don't get me started.
• The overabundance of ticks, poison ivy, and bad soil are all results of imbalance in the ecosystem. Too many deer running around, too much fragmented forest, and too much clearcutting. 
• Insects pollinate plants and feed animals. Dwindling populations threaten the entire system-- on a local level, yes, but on a global level as well. These bugs need leaf mulch, detritus, wood piles, bug hotels, tree stumps and snags, and generally dead/dying plants. 

The inexorable cycle of time is at once refreshing, terrifying, and reassuring. 

Seasons are brief, and different seasons demand very different mindsets

• Herbaceous plants need close attention paid to their seasonal fitness
• Spring hastiness leads to summer laziness leads to autumnal regret.
• A careful, productive start makes for a strong, robust plant that can survive harsher conditions.
• But a plant grown and adapted for one set of conditions may not be ready for another set. Sometimes plants take entire seasons to adjust to new environments. See: our Carolina Jessamine, which has only just started to really leaf out, after a year of settling in her new home.

Yearly cycles and multi-year cycles are also very important.

• Patience, yes
• But also future placement and growth rotation.
• Compost
• Raised beds, hugelkulture
• Woody plants

Averages are important, but the variance is key.

• A month might average out to a reasonable amount of rain, but many plants can't tolerate extended periods of drought or rain.
• As climate change intensifies, we have to grapple with the longterm implications of more extreme weather conditions
• Watering within a week-- inconsistent watering can be stressful for fruit. Not the biggest worry, but still.
• Consistency within a season is also very important. Stifled growth during the spring means weaker resilience in the summer.

Natural science demands flexibility in scale and scope of analysis. 

Intentionally challenging myself to change up how I thought about things has really paid off.

Time. Consider things on the following scales:

• Days: Water, temperature, and pest needs for herbaceous plants, compost disposal
• Weeks: Water and general welfare checkups for hardier plants, compost turning
• Months: Nutrient feeding (fertilization), growth maintenance (trimming, staking, supporting), compost cycling
• Seasons: Propagation, transplanting, seed collection, fruit/crop harvesting, wood composting
• Years: Garden design, woody plant health, nitrogen fixing, soil health
• Lifetime: Climate change, biome shifting, toxin accumulation, climate security in general

Space. Divide, subdivide, and conquer.

• Start with a small plot of land, a few square meters close to the back door that will be passed often and cared for daily. Here we will plant tomatoes, peppers, and other greedy herbaceous crop plants that demand water and attention.
• Expand from there-- to the nearest bushes, trees, or landmarks that will help define the area's boundaries. The plants here are plainly visible but not always within reach, capable of withstanding a day or two of neglect. Extreme conditions, like ten days without rain in July, will demand special care, but the average week will pass without event.
• Now we can plant our own trees and bushes, creating walls, contours, and points of interest (AND SHADE, HALLELLUJAH) within the garden. These trees will take time to grow, but eventually they will transform the landscape. They'll also provide extremely hardy consistency to the ecosystem, and depending on the choice, effortless fruit.
• There may be little more to expand into in most gardens. For those blessed with the space, this is our opportunity to create semi-managed wilderness, a haven for wildlife and natural processes like reproduction, predation, and decomposition. This is the hardcore nature that we hope to support in basically everything we do.

Knowledge. Start small and keep learning.

• Individual plant knowledge. Every plant has its own needs-- how much water does it need, how wet can it get, how dry can it get, how much sun does it need, how much sun will kill it, what kinds of nutrients does it need for specific growth (leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, roots), what pollinators does it need to propagate, etc
• Garden design. Each plant has to be placed somewhere, and it's a daunting task. All of the aforementioned needs have to be considered and matched together, one bed at a time.
• Seasonal design. Each plant will do different things as the seasons pass. It's difficult to imagine how those autumnal behaviors will line up when you're looking at seeds in the middle of January.
• Specific biomes. In the piedmont region of North Georgia, Zone 7b, there are many special things to consider: hot, humid summers, with at least one freeze per winter; waterlogging Georgia red clay; countless invasive species, both plants and insects; swarming mosquitoes from June to August; relentless sun from July to August.
• Native vs non-native plants. This was a big one for me. I had a hard time coming to understand that the vast majority of plants discussed, sold, and planted in the metro Atlanta area is foreign. It takes much more work to learn about, find, and purchase native plants. Stay tuned for more info on this end. Please, for the sake of our country, learn more.
• Science. There is much for me to learn in the way of biology, chemistry, and ecology. But I'm learning as I go, because that's the only way I know how. One day I will understand how to best fix the nitrogen in my soil, but for now I simply plant peas everywhere.

There's so much hidden below our feet, hiding in plain sight.

Natural resources

• Wood (including bamboo), (Insect habitats, construction, kindling, mulch)
• Fibers
• Leaves (Mulch and compost)
• Fruit and seeds (Food, propagation)
• Weeds (Compost)
• Stone and Earth (Construction)
• Rainwater

Plants just grow for FREE

• Natives hide in uncultivated areas. We've found the following on our property:
  
  • Muscadine Grape
  • Persimmon
  • Red Mulberry
  • Cherry Laurel
  • White Oak
  • Red Maple
  • Eastern Redbud
  • Spicebush
  • Elderberry
  • So many asters
  • Blue Mistflower
  • Common and Late Boneset
  • Partridge Pea
• Birds bring local plants, especially if you happen to live near nature preserves, parks, or wildlife sanctuaries. I figure most of our mulberries and redbuds appear this way.
• Seeds are really easy to come by, and although they may not work as quickly or reliably as desired, they're cheap enough to never be a waste.
• Plugs and seedlings take time, patience, and consistency, but they can eventually lead to ridiculously vigorous plants. We've had little success on this end, mostly because we lack consistency to an extreme degree. Somebody help.

So much of the cost of living is keeping up appearances

• Bushcraft and "redneck engineering" can provide 90% of the function of a retail product. I think it tends to look, feel, and decompose, better, too, because there's 100% less plastic involved.
• A lot of landscaping expense is just. . .  making things look tidier and nicer. Like raking leaves. But raking leaves just takes time and energy to throw away one of our most precious sources of mulch. Crazy, isn't it?

Details

What's worked?

• Low-effort, low-vigilance plants like coneflowers and bushes.
• Compost piles. So much compost. It's really just so nice.
• Cottage garden looks nice, if a bit sparse.
• Raised beds are thriving. These could be expanded tenfold.
• Tree saplings are growing, especially the mulberry.
• Letting natives grow-- blue mistflower, goldenrod, asters, muscadine grapes, partridge pea!!
• Weeding chamberbitter, hawksbeard, many others. Noticeable population decline since last year of both hawksbeard and chamberbitter

What hasn't worked?

• Mosquito control. June through August is still mosquito season, though I swear I'm noticing fewer bites these days, now that hurrican season is over.
• Peach tree is dead. RIP.
• Growing under shade is very difficult. The fig tree does not allow for much to grow underneath.
• Growing in pure clay is hard for any plant, especially during rainy seasons.
• Squash flowers/fruit never came about :(
• Cedar bed has been sad. Next year we'll just do crops, probably. The wildflowers have been difficult.
• Year 0 compost is not initially effective. Our crops lagged behind by about two weeks, but have caught up since. We can definitely expand our growing and harvesting season next year by a few weeks.

What will we try this winter and next spring?

• The Pond
• Bat Roost
• Bird Feeders
• Quail Hutch

I hope this rambling list is interesting.

#gardening #CarudanGarden #Retrospective