Unpopular gardening opinions:
You don’t need a huge garden, greenhouse, or a great setup for a painting to start growing your food. Also, you don’t have to grow everything at once. Sustainable gardening isn’t about making it all in advance, it’s about growing over time and adding things little by little. In fact, it’s often as good. Starting small will make things easier to manage, minimize waste, and help you build relationships between space and land. Grow along with what you can, where you are, what you have, and that’s enough.
Gardening or design trends you need to go to:
A garden designed exclusively for human pleasure. If our gardens don’t feed the creatures or contribute to anything greater than aesthetics, there’s room for growth. Of course, beauty is important, but it can coexist with purpose, ecology, and stewardship.
The Old Wife’s Story Gardening Tricks That Work:
The trick my grandfather taught me is to refrain from watering watermelon grapes once the fruit begins to mature. Plants concentrate their energy inwards and attract sugar to the fruit. It sounds like a folktales, but it’s actually one of the practices that has some science behind it.
Favorite ways to bring outdoors:
Whether it’s a philodendron running off the shelf, a vibrant peace lily in a sunlit corner, or a handful of cut cooking herbs in a sink jar, I like to make small green pockets throughout the house. Not only does herbs emit a wonderful aroma, they also remind us that they thrive just outside the garden.
In all the gardens…
Compost system. Whether it’s a 3-bin setup, a simple pile or a tuck away tumbler. Composting is a reminder that it is not truly wasted in nature. All the scraps, cutouts and garden debris will ultimately become nourishing.
Favorite Hardscape Materials:
My favorite material is wood chips from local oak, pine and cedar trees. I usually get them from nearby arborists and I love this material as this helps to retain moisture and adds a rich yet grounding texture to the garden path. Furthermore, over time, they nourish the soil (and microorganism lifespan) when they break down, improving the soil structure.
Tools that you can’t live without:
My Hori Horiknife digs, cuts, weeds, and readings. It’s really all the tools. If it’s not my hands then it’s definitely somewhere nearby.
A wide range of gardening outfits:
Floral dress combined with soft, breathable overalls or sometimes loose flowing dresses and rubber boots and wide hats. I like being cute and comfortable and ready to dig, haul or harvest if necessary.
About the wish list:
A big greenhouse or high tunnel for our new garden will be an absolute game changer. It can extend the growth season, protect crops from harsh weather, and create space for seed initiation, propagation, and improved food production. But more than that, it serves as a learning space where members of the community, children, or guests can step inside and learn how to grow food.
Undiscovered public gardens/parks/botanical gardens:
North Carolina Botanical Gardens At Chapel Hill. It is a lovely space that celebrates native plants and ecological stewardship in an accessible and attractive way.
The real reason you put your garden in your garden:
For reconnection and playback. Returning to a way of life that nourishes more than the land, my roots, and my body. I’m not just hoping for health for myself. I want it for my family, my community and for generations to come. I think gardening is one of the most powerful ways to make that vision come to fruition.
Thank you very much, Ashley! (You can follow her on Instagram @the.mocha.gardener))
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