By Ron Sandstead
For those of you who planted spring or summer gardens—you should be near the end of your summer season. Summer flowers are blooming and your veggies are still producing. You have maybe another month of summer. Hopefully you have been able to either can or freeze some of your produce.
At our Destin Community Garden on Main Street, the tomatoes stopped producing six weeks ago and the plants have been pulled. The squash vines were decimated by the squash borers and are now a distant memory. It got too hot for the kale so most has been pulled and composted. Cucumbers were also hit hard by the heat and are now dead vines. Yikes – This is sounding grim!
But that is just the way it is with gardening. Fruits, veggies, flowers — everything has its season. We still have our pole beans, Indian corn, okra, eggplant, peppers, watermelon and herbs. Yep – happy days are still here.
Most of the gardeners in our Community Garden plant flowers along with their veggies. We do this for a couple of reasons. Not only do flowers look and smell great, they bring in pollinators for our veggies. Also, certain flowers make great companion plantings by repelling some pests. The most common flower in our garden is the marigold, but we also have zinnias, lilies, pentas, pansies, roses, cone flowers and black-eyed Susan’s – you get the idea. It is always fun to bring home a fresh bouquet of flowers along with a basket full of organic veggies.
Some of our gardeners also love growing herbs. The Mediterranean herbs are the most popular. These are mostly perennials, so we try to plant them in our common areas. Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and lavender are several that do well and do not need a lot of attention. In fact, they do best when you ignore them. The more you water and fertilize, the worse they will do, and you might even kill them. So, if you are thinking of planting herbs, put them over in the corner of your garden and leave them alone. They will do fine as long as you keep them weeded.
Now that we are at the end of summer gardening, it is time to begin planning your fall and winter gardens. If you like to grow a variety of unusual produce, now is when you want to get out your seed catalogues and begin ordering. You can also order your seeds online.
And yes, we can grow veggies and flowers in Destin year-round. Actually, I prefer gardening in cooler weather. The bugs are a lot nicer and it is so much easier to work without passing out from the heat. Fall and winter is when we grow collards, kale, carrots, peas, beets, many kinds of lettuce, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, several kinds of cabbage, mustard, radishes and onions.
Since we are still harvesting okra, beans, peppers, carrots and eggplant, we are not quite ready to clean out our garden beds. But, we are close. Once a veggie is done producing, it is time to pull it and clean up the bed. This is when you want to boost your soil nutrients by adding compost and minerals.
This last year and a half have been rough for those who were shut in from Covid. I couldn’t do it. Thankfully, I had a garden to go to. Working outside with others, I did not feel the isolation that I heard others talk about. We have about 30 gardeners in our Community Garden. I enjoy the variety of personalities, life experiences and funny stories. So, for me, gardening is never boring or lonely.
Certainly, gardening can be hard work, but that feels good too. For us in our little garden community, we have a certain slice of reality and ordinary. There is no craziness. It is just flowers, veggies, butterflies, bees, and other gardeners. It is peace.
Okay – maybe there are a lot of weeds to pull and the occasional wasp. But for me, our garden on Main Street is a little slice of heaven and the best place to be in Destin!
If you have questions or would like to know how you can be involved, contact me at ronsandstead@hotmail.com.
Happy Gardening y’all!
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