Planting patience
learning that a yard takes a bit more than just soil, sun and seeds
I love gardening, although not so much in the hot humid NC summer, but overall, working in my yard brings me much joy! When I moved to Hillsborough and bought my “new-to-me” house (it was built in 1911!) the yard intimidated me. It’s almost an acre with a mixture of established trees, shrubs, perennials, and lots of grass/weeds and it seems huge! As every gardener knows, any sized garden requires consistent constant maintenance. This one was much more than I could do by myself so I found a local company to take care of the basic grass mowing and edging as a start.
I’d sit on my front porch and envision tall enough shrubbery to block the view of my across-the-street neighbor’s neon green industrial trash bin. Or I’d gaze out my kitchen window and dream of picking fresh snap peas from a raised-garden or picking a bouquet of sunflowers from my own yard. I had big ideas but also knew I wanted an expert who could help me not only maintain what I had but also enhance it. Since none of the neighbors or few friends that I knew at the time had recommendations I searched online. That’s when I found the Hillsborough Garden Club. They just celebrated their 100th birthday, so I figured they’d have some landscape design company recommendations. They had a “Ask a local gardener” tab on their website, so I filled out the form and waited.
some of the bounty from my garden! Dreams coming true!
It turns out the Hillsborough Garden Club member who answered those emails has a next-door-neighbor, Dana, who is a professional gardener. I hit the jackpot!! Soon Dana was sitting on my front porch sharing about her experiences as the gardener for the local historic landmark, Ayr Mount over the past twenty years. She let me yammer on about all my ideas for my yard as she rocked back and forth sipping a Spindrift sparkling soda water and wisely surveyed my yard. (It’s killing me not to say NC sweet tea because that’s the southern classic front porch drink, but I haven’t perfected my sweet tea recipe yet!)
Once again, I was impatient to get started right away. (See my Social media Part 1 blog—there seems to be a pattern here!) Dana’s the type of gardener that takes her time to get to know the yard over the seasons before she starts planting. I’m the type of client who buys 15 1-gallon plants from the Hillsborough Garden Club just because they look cool and I was a new member. (I ended up having to hand water them throughout last year’s hot summer to keep them alive before we planted them in just the right spot!)
Luckily Dana is tolerant, kind, and wise. She’s teaching me much about patience—taking time to understand your yard, ground saturation, sunlight direction, and more. I’m constantly learning from her calm demeanor and expertise as a gardener. My garden is flourishing under her care and ideas. I now have a tall deer fence around a section of the back yard with three raised beds for my snap peas, French breakfast radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and much more. My side yard is becoming this sweet, shade garden with multiple ferns (my favorite for some reason!) We’re working on getting my back yard more manageable with defining new beds, a stone firepit circle, new trees, and more shrubs. It looks so different and is still beautiful and inspiring in the process. And we have big plans for what to plant this fall. She’s taught me so much about bed prep, the proper way and time to weed, and planting things where and when the plants will thrive. She’s taught me that there are many benefits to being patient and getting to know a space before jumping in. I’m even trying to apply that concept to other parts of my life!
I still have much to learn from Dana and thankfully she’s still willing to be patient with me. And I’m also still waiting for that perfect bush to be planted to block my neighbor’s neon green trash bin because the first ones we tried out had to be moved. Turns out it’s tough to get something to grow well under cedar trees. But that’s okay because I know we will figure it out with patience, determination, and Dana’s wise guidance.
Do you like to garden? What’s your favorite thing that you’ve learned?
Stay curious and be patient!
~Melora Fern
Like this article? Here are some of my others you might be interested in:
What I learned from the cat that found me
Learning about birds and people
My book Whistling Women and Crowing Hens is out now! Check out different places you can purchase here!
This was also published on my blog at melorafern.com