SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST — PATIO STYLE
by Joana M . -O .
Growing up bookish and fair-skinned in Texas , I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with nature and gardening . Yes , we had a yard , but it was mainly a place of heat , stinging and biting bugs , dry grass , and sunburn . Despite the heat , my parents had a vegetable garden .
Even though I took great delight in devouring sweet peas straight off the plant , vine-ripened summer tomatoes in our salads , and the bushels of basil my parents turned into pesto , I was never asked to help with any of the gardening chores . Perhaps for these reasons , gardening feels daunting to me , like something very difficult I would have to learn from the ground up ( pun intended ). When our children were small and in German daycare , it seemed like all the rage for families to get a Schrebergarten or allotment to spend their weekends gardening , surrounded by the gentler , more verdant nature of northern Germany .
That additional responsibility was not attractive to us , so my husband and I decided to make do with the patio that we were already lucky enough to have . We do like plants , but we have adopted a very “ survival of the fittest ” attitude towards our patio pots . When the weather gets nice , we tidy , sweep , and pull up the weeds growing up between the paving slabs ( sorry , plants , I know you ’ re just trying to survive !). Usually there is an empty pot or two following winter ’ s trials , so we ’ ll buy an herb or a flowering plant we have been coveting . This year it is lavender , to remind us of trips to southern France .
We have also had a black-eyed Susan to remind me of home and a clematis , because I just like them , but they did not thrive . My husband enjoys watering and remembers to do it . I have been known to stick some seeds in pots and forget them , but there is no intentional gardening going on otherwise . This means our patio is mainly a home for hardy perennials , “ weeds ,” and volunteers . Those volunteers are one of my great delights . I learned the phrase from my father , who might come into the house with a flower , a zucchini , or even a butternut squash and announce , “ We got a volunteer !” These gifts of nature usually sprouted on top of or near the compost pile .
Apartment living has frustrated my own various attempts at composting , but we do have a fledgling volunteer apricot tree . We found the pit , probably dropped by one of the neighbor children , on our patio . It had already split and showed a small sprout . We stuck it in a pot and hoped for the best . It survived this last winter , so we are optimistic it will not only survive our benign neglect but thrive for many years to come .
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24 HOW YOUR GARDEN GROWS