Pickaway

When choosing a title for this column the name of our county, Pickaway, was a natural. It also has other interpretations, which gave rise to this column’s name. You may remember as a kid, if you grew up here, when asked where you were from you would pinch the person several times and say, “Pick away!” It is another interpretation, which I want to explore.

You really can pick a way to garden. Chances are most of us have already made that choice whether it was conscious or not. There are several types of gardening to choose from: raised beds, rows, square foot, containers, rain gardens, greenhouse etc. You can also practice most these types of gardening indoors or outdoors. Some people like their flowerbeds to have a theme such as a white garden where all the blooms are white. Others like their flowerbeds to be a riot of color.

In addition to the type of gardening you choose there are also many ways to garden: you can plan your plantings or just plant as it comes to you. Planners often draw out a plan for each bed deciding where each plant will go. Planners make a decision to buy a specific plant and know exactly where they want it and then go out and purchase it. Myself, I tend to buy a plant that appeals to me and then try to find a place to plant it. I call this way “intuitive.” I’ve done both.

In addition to the “planner” and the “intuiter” ways of gardening you can garden intensely or casually. Intensive gardeners work hard at gardening. They get out there and work until their task is complete. They often work in the garden every day. Often they may work all day in their garden. Planners tend to be intensive gardeners.

The casual types work in the garden as the mood strikes them or occasionally when they notice something that needs attention, like a drooping coleus in the pot on the patio. They go to the garden to weed, notice a plant that needs deadheading, go to the shed for their pruners, while in the shed they see a bag of mulch and remember that the rose bush needed mulching. While spreading the mulch they see that the rose bush needs a dusting and it’s back to the shed to get the sprayer. While on the way to the shed they see the lawn needs mowing and so…. You get the picture. At the end of the day the yard is strewn with bags and tools and the weeds are still there.

Casual gardeners are often intuiters. Intuiters often wish they were planners and intensive but it remains just a wish. As a natural intuiter casual type I have learned a little discipline over the years. I’ve learned the hard way. If you want to be more successful as a gardener you must adapt somewhat to the ways of the planner intensive types. These traits are on a continuum of extremes and we all must find our place somewhere along the continuum, somewhere between the extremes. Planner intensive types are not always successful. Our neighbor growing up was an extreme planner intensive. One day he complained to my father over the fence that he just couldn’t raise good tomatoes no matter what he did. He said he even tried talking to them. My father said, “What do you say to them? Maybe they resent it.”

Does it make any difference which type or way of gardening you pick? Some would say yes but I think it doesn’t make much difference as long as it works for you. Explore them all and you will eventually pick the one that works for you. The important thing is to enjoy the process as well as the results.

Don’t forget, there will be a new master gardener class beginning the third week of March. To get on the list or for information contact me at 740/497-4397 or phang@columbus.rr.com.

Things to do in the garden:
• Continue to read your seed catalogs. As you dream, circle the plants that intrigue you. Make out a tentative order. If you want a rare or popular plant, order it now before they are all gone.
• If you plan to start seeds indoors. Read up on the techniques and begin to make sure you have the equipment and supplies you will need. Either order through catalogs or the net, ask your local nursery or, you may have all the ingredients at home.
• If you are itching to get your hands in the dirt look up a technique called winter sowing at Wintersown.org
• On a rare nice day do a yard chore. This is a good time to prune trees and shrubs. You can see their structure now that they are dormant and the leaves are down. Cut out crossing and rubbing branches and unwanted suckers.