A Late Start

by Catherine Dilts

I’ve gotten a late start on gardening this year. Considering the weather this spring, perhaps I’m starting right on time.

Back in March, my husband and I did some yard clean-up. I prepped my containers, refreshing the dirt and pulling out last year’s roots. I also started a few seeds indoors.

In the past, I aggressively pushed the boundaries. Knowing when the last hard freeze occurs here (Mother’s Day), I would use elaborate covers to protect plants. The growing season is short in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Too short to realistically attempt growing hot, long season plants like okra and watermelon.

Yes, I’ve tried to grow both, with minimal success. It’s difficult enough growing tomatoes and peppers. Cold climate foods like kale and broccoli do well.

I’m tired of trying to fool Mother Nature. My experience has been that all that boundary pushing did not result in a significant increase in tomatoes. Peppers are a summer crop, and they won’t abide being rushed.

This year, I’m not going to extremes to get my garden started early. I’m also trying a few new techniques.

I am starting plants in larger pots, then transferring them to even roomier pots when I estimate the roots have filled the container.

Fewer plants, with more attention to those I do grow.

Another experiment is leaving the grow lights on 24 hours a day. So far, this seems to have improved the size and health of my plants.

Part of my reason for relaxing my approach to gardening is that other activities have taken priority.

My husband retired, kinda sorta. He might continue doing occasional contract work for funsies. He’s just that kind of guy, plus his work as a medical device engineer is interesting. So when he’s actually not working, he appreciates me being available for hikes and travel. And I'm happy to be able to do things mid-week, instead of cramming everything into a hectic weekend.

Even though I’m retired now, I really have to schedule my days. I’m embarking on a co-author project that’s consuming a lot of time. My own fiction writing continues. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time in a day for writing all the stories I want to tell.

Which makes gardening an important hobby. Stopping, going outside, pushing my hands in the dirt, provides balance. It connects me to the changing seasons.

It’s finally gardening season in Colorado. Unless it snows again.

The Fun Begins

 by Catherine Dilts

Don’t we always want to skip the boring parts and get right to the fun? When I have a new idea for a story, I’m tempted to dive straight into the writing. But leaping from the dream phase to the manuscript rarely works out well for me. The same goes for my garden.

Gardening and writing fiction follow similar paths. Phase one is imagining the project. Dreaming. Phase two is preparing for the project. Planning, mapping, outlining. Phase three is where the actual fun begins. In gardening, this is planting. In writing, well, it’s the writing. Telling the story.

If you’re planting a garden, Phase Three is the fun part. You buy plants from the garden shop, order seeds online, or sort through your existing seed packets and saved seeds.

Starting my seedlings indoors is an exciting time, as I set up shelves and grow lights that will take up space in the dining room for the next several months. I prepare the soil for in-ground planting, and refresh the soil in my containers and flower pots. After the last spring freeze, I tuck future flowers and crops into their beds. Water, weed, and wait.

In writing, Phase Three assumes you now have an outline, if you’re a Plotter. Even a Pantser has an idea of where the story is going. You’re ready to start the story’s journey. Maybe you have some little rituals before you type the first word of a new story. You might have to set up a blank manuscript with the proper margins, font, and line spacing before you begin. Or you dive right in, knowing you’ll put it all in the proper format later.

Using the story outline as my map, I begin the journey to a rough draft. I usually have peripheral documents going at the same time. I keep digital research notes close at hand to verify facts as I write. A character list and a series guide are necessities. For my Rose Creek series, I have to keep track of a growing puppy, one character’s pregnancy, the dates and seasons, and names, names, names. Write, rewrite, edit, polish.

When the fun work begins, the garden will eventually bear fruit, and the manuscript will result in a completed short story or novel.