Article Author:
Associated Press
Leanne Italy
NEW YORK (AP) — Take my chard.
Many home gardeners have seen a surge in numbers since the start of the pandemic, and it's time to be rewarded with fully mature, ready-to-harvest vegetables and flowers. , Travel is back this summer.
How do you maintain your garden and take advantage of all the goodness of home-growing during long trips? You may harvest tomatoes, beans, and zucchini.
A garden sitter is one answer.
Some gardeners hire professionals, but many rely on their neighbors to do their best.
"It's really hard to leave the yard," said Teresa Fiumano her Rattigan, a longtime home gardener in Brooklyn. She relies on her parents and close relatives as her gardeners for her five weeks each summer on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. "Nobody does it like I do."
It helps to have an experienced sitter who isn't afraid to take control. Avoid letting inexperienced neighbors and friends freely choose what they like without paying attention to the plants and not knowing when to water them.
``First, find one of your friends who has a garden you like and make sure you are willing to return the favor,'' says New York Botanical's outdoor garden and garden. said Adam Chopper, Associate Director of Sustainable Horticulture. Bronx garden.
He suggests explaining the process to gardeners ahead of time to make sure things are done right.Install sprinklers and soaker hoses. This makes it easier to work while you are away. For container gardens, group the containers in the shade so the plants don't dry out too quickly even if you only have a week or two of vacation time. Place a container in a child's pool with water. This helps the soil conserve water and keep weeds at bay.
For gardeners who do not have a trusted neighbor or loved one, there are many people who hire gardeners through local online message boards, nurseries and gardening associations.
Rachel Mulkerin tended about 3,000 square feet of gardens on her nine acres in Sherman, Connecticut, and had an adult education. I employ a helper with special needs who I found through my mother. teacher.
"It's a very mutually beneficial arrangement," she said.
Mulkerin uses about half of her produce for herself and her family, and distributes the rest to those in need in her community.
Gardens have long provided a sense of security and comfort that can be difficult to delegate, says her Ambra Edwards, horticultural historian and co-author of "The Story of Gardening." says Mr.
Edwards, who gardens herself in the English countryside of Dorset, sees her vacation as a relief from hardships, but she sees a manic gardener who can't tear herself apart. I know a lot.
"There is one friend in particular, and she must travel a lot. She travels the length and breadth of the country. puts all the vegetables, all the sweet peas, and a particular myrtle in pots that she got from a very close friend who is now dead, and loads them into the car.They go with her.She's a snail that carries her home. ' said Edwards.
Gardeners are generally sharers, and sharing vegetables at a distance not only increases post-harvest production, but also prevents tomatoes and other crops from spoiling. increase.
"Rotten tomatoes cause other tomatoes to rot, and they are also very smelly," Chopper said.
Some vegetables, such as cucumbers and zucchini, must be harvested to prevent them from growing into inedible monsters.
Designated Garden Sitters can take whatever they want and leave the rest on the front porch or at the end of the driveway after Word of Free Fresh Food
Heather Grabin of Hampton, New Jersey has 10 gardens on 40 acres. She also owns a cafe in a city an hour away where fresh food is not often available. She uses her vegetables and herbs in her own restaurant and sells some of her surplus at low prices.
Grabin had to delay her trip to California this year by three weeks because of her two children's new school schedules. By the time she and her family left, her tomatoes and zucchini were in abundance.With such an overwhelming amount, she went the route of a hired garden sitter.
"It's different when you're doing it yourself and when you have to get someone to do it for you," she said. "He's flash frozen everything. That's a lot."
Doug Guttenberg and his wife Tal grow herbs in their backyard just minutes from their Brooklyn home. Nurture and grow vegetables in the community garden. He also owns a house in Detroit and every summer he spends a month in Michigan. They leave their Brooklyn plants to their neighbors, fellow gardeners, and know first-hand what would happen without a sitter after choosing to quit one last year. When I came back, the cucumbers were attacking everything," Tal said. “It was like a tornado of cucumbers.
