I’ve decided that I’m a nature gardener. I’m retired, getting older, yet still want to grow as much of our food as possible. Don’t want to overthink or overwork though. Hence my new code words for using strategies from nature to simplify my gardening  for ease, efficiency and economy. Approaching June, it seems that some of my almost-no-work strategies are proving successful.

I keep a diagram from year to year to help me stay organized. The perimeter beds are mainly fall-sown crops, or volunteers, or perennials, or early spring plantings. The middle zone is for hot weather vegetables. (That area does not look nice yet. No photos please!) What you can’t see in the drawing is the additional 4’x’12' framed bed, perfectly sized to cover with netting. That's where you'll find all the cabbage and broccoli at the moment.

Of course, a plan is only a starting place. You have to be flexible when you're a nature gardener.

Food and Herb Sufficiency Garden Plan Zone 8 Fraser Valley

Every year, a few volunteer potatoes show up, and they are always welcome. Last fall I decided to go with the flow, intentionally planting my potato crop in September instead of storing them all winter and planting them out in the spring. I chose nine medium-sized tubers for each 4 x 4 bed and put them right back into the soil that was already dug over from harvesting. One bed for white European potatoes, and one for red Cristina potatoes. I covered them with a blanket of fallen leaves for the winter. By the end of March, potato shoots were up in both beds. I raked off the leaf cover and left them alone. They are growing beautifully.

In the 4 x 5 greens bed, last fall I let a Lolla Rossa lettuce and a Blue Vantes kale go to seed. My hope was that new plants would grow on their own in the spring as soon as the conditions were right for them. Instead they chose to come up in the fall, which was wonderful because I had fresh lettuce and kale to pick for salads through the winter. Come spring, the kale provided leaves for a while before it started to bolt. I collected the kale flower ”broccoli” then finally pulled out the plants. Meanwhile, a few seeds did wait until spring to come up, so the bed is planted as I had hoped. The lettuce filled about 2/3 of the bed and produced a lovely red leaf harvest until the warm weather caused it to bolt. Interestingly, none of the lettuce or kale that overwintered was damaged by pests – no slugs, no rabbits. It was like they had a secret cloak of invisibility. I will definitely do this again.

So that made three beds planted in the fall and thriving with no work involved this spring.

Likewise, I had planted 80 garlic cloves (Red Russian) in October and covered them with leaves lightly held in place by lath (or sticks or netting). They are a resounding success, as garlic almost always is. The only maintenance they needed so far was to remove some of the leaf covering where it was too thick for the shoots to get through. They are beginning to send up their scapes as I write this.

I started some Cascadia sugar snap peas at home in February, putting them outside in our sheltered entryway so they could sprout according to their own sense of timing. I didn’t have to harden them off. Much easier. They were covered by cloches to give them a little protection from the cold nights. Now they are in flower and producing their first pods at least two weeks ahead of the second trellis of peas that I planted in the garden. I did the same for cabbage and broccoli seeds. When I transplanted them, I covered the bed with a simple frame and netting. The cabbage heads are now forming as are the first couple of broccoli heads.

All of these head starts got the garden growing while I focused on the next stage of vegetables. Fortex beans were held back until April for their preferred weather. I planted the first row, remembering how I lost so many sprouts last year. I blamed birds – a bean sprout does look like a delicious grub, I guess. So I built a simple cover using a collapsible square tomato cage. Perfect, no losses. But when they were well grown and I removed the covering, a rabbit came along in the night and ate off the whole row. Call me Mrs. McGregor. I was not best pleased. This year, jerry-rigged netting can be seen all throughout the garden.

Meanwhile, I started the peppers, tomatoes and squash at home in the Floralight. I think I’ve perfected that process so I will share it with you before next spring.