meg homeStYle megbeshey
photographs by Meg Beshey
The Garden Adventure So It Grows Last month, the garden adventure began with great effort, ideas and product. Thank goodness you can find everything you need and more right here in the Fort Dodge area. You can get things like the Flower and Vegetable Guide that Rick Lamoureux of Earl May gave me. This resourceful guide helped me to make decisions on what and when certain plants would be put into the garden. Between getting the organic soil to the specific seed packets, the garden got off to a slow start. It also required some simple time to figure out, according to the initial drawing, what plants were going where in the art palette shaped garden. Once the space was tilled properly by local gardener Roger Hartzler last month, it didn’t take long to put up the barriers to keep those large animals out of the space. Hartzler also came by to supervise the décor operation of the garden on Mother’s Day. The colors were inspired by an English gardener who decorates her gardens with knick knacks. Ribbons were used to do this garden, and in bright colors to make it truly an artist’s garden. “It is very clear that you do not have deer so much to worry about,” said Larry Rohrer, Master Gardener advisor, “but the dogs more with your garden setup.” He liked the orange ribbons with dots the best. That was evident when he came to view the progress of the seedlings that have been put into their various sections. The marigolds are sprouting in the top portion of the “palette.” The surprise growth is the
Ribbons are used to stake out the garden and decorate it.
success of the potatoes and the onions. Thanks to the recent deluge events, they took off famously and they are making the other plants jealous. A note about the garden in terms of the arrangement of poles, tomatoes racks sticks, netting and such: It took time to realize that the interior of the garden, where the potatoes and onions are growing, is similar to fencing in a weird Stonehenge kind of way. One wonders where that subtlety came from to encourage such unique design. The answer is the paternal resource in this project, Bob Adams. Being an astronomer, my father, who is a great gardener, did this by osmosis or some form of cosmic energy. Rohrer was dis-
cussing long-distance travels while looking at the fencing and saying, “Kind of interesting stick, archaic thing going on here in your garden design, layout seems to be thought out well.” Yes, though it was not really planned to have that aura, but it’s cool. Everything is in for the most part in the garden, Rohrer was informed, and he quickly said we needed to get our minds made up on the areas not yet planted. Those plants needing to get in are: pole beans, squash (the house is divided between summer squash or zucchini; feel free to weigh in), okra and more tomatoes. “You probably should do the tomatoes as soon as you
Fort Dodge Today
June 2012
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