by Anne Schreck of Garden Tool Company
If there is one thing that I have learned from all my years in the garden, it is that you can't fight Mother Nature. As soon as you realize the truth in this statement, you begin to work with your garden rather than against it. You learn to consider such things as the composition of your soil, the hours and quality of sunlight a given spots gets throughout the day, the amount of rainfall your area receives and most important, the average temperature extremes in your area.
When I first began to garden, I was trying to be more of a designer than a gardener. I picked whatever plant I liked aesthetically and found a place to plant it where I thought that it would look the best with little regard to its need for sunlight, water or its heat tolerance. Needless to say, I killed a lot of lovely plants, and in time, I learned the importance of paying attention to all those factors.
Now my philosophy is to go native as much as I can. When you fill your garden with plants that are native to the area, you are gardening Mother Nature's way. If it grows by itself, you know it's suited to the area. So instead of just going to the local garden center and picking out the plants that I think look the prettiest, I do more research and planning and I try to pick the plants based on the area I am planting. Of course, I can't say that I never kill plants anymore, because nobody that does much gardening ever gets to the point of perfection, but I sure kill a lot less than I used to.
We moved from Dallas to Northern Colorado four years ago and believe me, gardening in this place is nothing like gardening in that place. They are both places with a lot of sun and not a lot of water but that is where the similarity ends. There I worried about not baking my plants, while here I have to worry about not freezing them. The growing season here is much shorter as well. So with the move came a change of plants and I was forced to say goodbye to some old favorites, but new favorites abound and I am adjusting the way I garden accordingly.
The good news is that today there is a wealth of information out there for learning to garden with nature, where you live. Here in Fort Collins, we have a wonderful resource in the Annual Flower Trial Garden at CSU. The garden is just blocks from our house and every year I look forward to the awesome beauty of the place when they get it all planted. They evaluate which annuals and perennials perform the best right here in my neighborhood which is impacted by altitude, wind, hail, lack of rain and large daily temperature fluctuations. Having it right there is a gardener's dream come true and I look to their website often. I also rely on other high country gardeners and their wonderful blogs, and I have bought a number of books geared to gardening in the Rocky Mountains. Finally, I spend a lot of time perusing The Old Farmer's Almanac, both in print and on the internet. There is a wealth of information regarding things such as soil temperatures, average last freeze dates and dates for starting your seeds.
So the best piece of advice I can give to any new gardener is to study and plan before you just jump right into it. Working with nature and planting according to your area will save you a lot of time, money and grief. After all, gardening is a great past time but it can be a whole lot of work and wasted money if you don't put some thought into it as you go.
Our blog post this week is from Anne Schreck at Garden Tool Co. in Fort Collins, CO. The Garden Tool Company specializes in quality garden tools, gifts, and gear. They have been a dealer of Clarington garden tools for several years www.gardentoolcompany.com
