Writing Rural With Alley

Storycrafting: Gardening Overview

• Alley

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How important should gardening be to the survival of your character? What preparation will your character do to prepare for their garden? Want to learn how to weave gardening into any season of your story? What about dead fish? Find out on this episode! 

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How important should gardening be to the survival of your characters? What preparation will your character do to prepare for their garden? Want to learn how to weave gardening into any season of your story? What about dead fish? Find out on this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural with Alley, the Fiction Writers Weekly Inspirations Station for Rural, Life, and Life Styles from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley, and this is episode number 68, Gardening Overview. Stick around to to find out all the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now, let's get into this. Gardening is as intertwined with a rural life as trees. Many people today, historically, and I assume in the Apocalypse, garden to grow food to eat now and to save food for the winter. If they fail at saving enough food for winter, there will be a good chance that they will starve during the winter. Our stories need to reflect the importance of this task. Granted, it is possible to buy food from the store today, but many homesteads and off-the-grid homes, along with the Amish, use this as their main source of food, if not their only source. In fact, many people today do this because they can't afford the food at the grocery store, and they only buy the things that they can't grow easily. This normally includes flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, and things of this nature. Actually, many people in history bought these same items and grew the rest. Side note, this is about gardening, so I am going to stick to fruits and vegetables and not meat since you don't grow that on a plant. First things first. Let's cover the steps and tasks needed to start a garden. I will start at the beginning, but keep in mind, many characters will already have a garden plot when your story starts. There is normally a every step of planning the garden. No one randomly picks a spot or what they plant. Your character is going to decide based on how much sun the spot gets and more. They do not want it in mostly rocks or in a place where it's prone to floods. Some plants need shade, so they might opt for two different gardens. They must decide how much to plant to have food in not only summer and fall, but enough to store for the entire winter. If they're growing animal feed, that will need to be calculated as well. It is always best to overplant and reap an abundance than to plant too little and be hungry. They also must decide what is planted, where it is planted, what plants are planted together, and what plants are not together. This is because some plants will do well together and others do badly together. Some examples are tomatoes do well with basil, basil does well with peppers, and cucumber do well with dill. There are many lists of companion plants online, and I will leave some links in the show notes on my website. However, the most well known of the companion plants is what the Cherokees call the Three Sisters. These are corn, beans, and squash. The corn is a great support for the beans to grow up. The squash is grown along the ground, shading the rest of the plants and helping to hold in the moisture. The beans will help to replenish the nitrogen in the soil for the squash and the corn to use. I first learned about this as a child. My Native American grandmother told me that when she was young and later when she had her own garden, they would place a dead fish about a foot into the ground under the corn seeds to help them grow. Yes, a dead fish for every single stock of corn that they planted. I don't know if all tribes did this or if this was just something that she did. Either way, planning what and where to plant things is on the top of this list. The next step that needs to be done is the spot where the garden will be needs to be cleared. This means removing the grass, normally with a maddock. These look like a long a hoe on one side, yes, the gardening tool, and a pickax on the other. If there are trees, they will be cut down and the roots that are close to the surface will be dug up. Stumps are normally burned over a few days. After that comes the fun of removing all the rocks. When I was a kid, we had to pick up all the rocks we could find every single time the garden was tilled. There will always be rocks. Always. I have been in nice places that there were only a few rocks, but I have lived in a rock country and we still pulled rocks out of the ground in the wheelbarrow loads every year, and it was gardening for over 30 years in the same spot before we even bought that land. We always said that we were growing rocks. Picking up rocks is also a favorite punishment for kids. At least it was in my family, and I did it a lot growing up. For gardens that are being tilled, explanations of what that is coming up soon, they will have to have their rocks removed as well. Your character will be checking for rocks to remove every time they till. Other types of garden prep are raised beds and mounds. Raised beds can be made

of many things:

plastic, metal, wood, logs, rocks, and cement. This takes time and effort to make. Plus, they will need to decide beforehand what shape they want and where they will be placing them. This also involves hauling dirt to fill the raised beds or to make the dirt into a mound shape. Mounds are similar to raised beds, except they are long dirt piles that have no frame to help hold their shape. Plants like lettuce can be planted in these, and it brings it up so that your character does not need to bend over or kneel to harvest them. Next is tilling and cultivating. This is turning over the dirt to loosen it and let the air into the soil. This can be done with a tiller or by hand. Having done both, the tiller is easier, but it's still very hard if the ground is rocky. Actually, it was so rocky in a few places that I have lived that I cannot physically use a tiller, and I had to ask my husband or my father to do it for me. I have also done this with a Maddock. That is a serious workout and will take a lot of time. A quick side note. While most people, myself included, till gardens, the grant doesn't actually need tilled. People talk about it like it is necessary, but it isn't technically true. What is true is that it makes it easier to plant, and ripping up the roots of anything that might be growing there means there will be less competition for your plant's roots. I'm aware that a lot of people disagree with me and believe that your garden can't survive if you do not till it. Something most people don't know is that tilling typically happens during the winter months. Okay, I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. If there's nothing in the garden for long periods of time, it gives your character plenty of time to take care of and prepare it for the next year's crops, slowly and at their own pace. Otherwise, they will spend days grueling away and be exhausted. People who do this dread the spring garden. So instead, most people do it a little at a time on nice days in the winter. After the garden is planned and ready, it's time to plant. Well, kind of. You see, some plants are cool weather plants and others need to be planted when it's warmer. In our area, lettuce can be planted in late winter and reaped in spring. The same is true for potatoes. However, we can't plant tomatoes until after the last frost, or at least we can't bring out the seedlings until then. I think my favorite planting knowledge was passed down from my grandmother. She said that you plant corn when the oak's trees leaves are the size of a squirrel's ear. Your character will now need to care for their garden. This includes many chores. Weeding the garden is up there on the top of the list. This is easy once the seeds have sprouted and grown a bit. However, for newer gardeners, they might misidentify the weeds as the plants and accidentally pull the actual plants that they planted. Yeah, I've oopsed that one. Another thing is that they need to make sure the garden has enough water. If it's raining, great. In the summertime, they might need to supplement with watering the garden. However, there are droughts they will need to contend with. They might have to haul in water and pour it onto the plant roots. Never let your character pour water onto the plant itself in the summer, as this will cause the plant to burn in the hot sun. There is something called an olla, or perhaps it's pronounced olla. It is a slow watering system. This is a clay pot that is buried in the ground up to the opening on the top. The water is added into the top. The water slowly seeps through the clay and into the ground, watering the plant's roots. This is something that has been used since ancient times and is still used today. Likely, it will be used in the Apocalypse. Irrigation is another thing that has been around since ancient times and is still used today. It likely will be in the zombie Apocalypse, too. The next thing is reaping the crop. This is done in stages. Many plants will have some ripe that day and some the next. These don't normally happen all at the same time. This will have your characters trying to save just as much as they eat a food every day. Why? Not only must they get through the winter, but they have to wait until the first ripe food to grow also. Normally, this means they are working for two or three hours a day to can, dehydrate, or whatever method of preservation they are using. Which can sound like a lot, but if your character is not going to a 40-hour work week, they have time. However, there are times that large crops are brought in at the same time, and it might take a few days to get all the food stored away. This can be normal in fall. In my area, these are wheat, corn, soybeans, wild rice, walnuts, acorns, persimmons, and more. A vital part of gardening is saving the seeds for next year. While you might think that you wait for the very best, that is and is not true. Your character will want to save the first seeds out of the plants. This is in case of gardening disasters. Maybe a hailstorm or tornado, locus, or a large garden pest like deer or rabbits. They want to make sure they have a way to grow more if disaster strikes. Yes, later they will save the seeds from their best plants. An important thing I remember hearing the old timers say was to save at least two years' worth of seeds. That way, if drought or other disaster happened, you would to have seeds to plant the next year. Seed store properly were said to be good for up to five years. That is properly, and if no moisture gets to them. Another garden consideration is making compost. That is done all year round, normally by throwing scraps out into the same place. Bunny poop is a good one to add as it's very good for the garden. Dead leaves can be placed into the pile in the fall. It can take dirt about three years to make, so many people rotate and make three compost piles to be used every three years. They rotate them often. This means they go out with a pitchfork or similar and bring the bottom of the pile up and mix it with the top for even decomposing. Testing the soil is more of a modern thing and can be done at any time of the year. There are all kinds of things you can buy to fix any issues, but many times natural ways work better. However, in history, and I assume in the Apocalypse, this was done by carefully observing the plants. An example of this is that if tomato leaves turn yellow, they likely are nitrogen deficient. Things to help can be coffee grounds, manure, wood ash, and bone meal.

Fun fact:

did you know that tomatoes are technically a fruit? Now you do. Now for everyone's favorite part, what could possibly go wrong? Before we get into the best part, if you enjoy this podcast, I hope you will take a minute to follow, rate, and review on your favorite podcasting platform. And if you're listening on YouTube, subscribe and hit that like button. Drop me a comment. I love to hear from you and answer questions. Don't forget to share with a friend. As always, you can find this episode's show notes and helpful links to learn more on my website, alleyhart. Com. And now for everyone's favorite part.

Likely to go wrong:

Your character is new to gardening and doesn't know what the sprouts of their plants look like. They mistake a weed for their garden plants. When they try to remove the weeds from the garden, they unknowingly pull the garden plants up, leaving only weeds.

Also, likely to go wrong:

your character's tomato plant doesn't get enough calcium, and as they start to ripen, they also start to rot at the bottom of the individual tomatoes.

Also likely to go wrong:

your character is new to gardening and plant incompatible garden plants together, causing both plants to die.

Possibly to go wrong:

your character didn't make sure the plants got enough sun, and they do not flourish as well as they could.

Also possible to go wrong:

your character was waiting for the best plants to get seeds for the next year. However, a hailstorm came and destroyed the garden, and now they have no seeds to replace the plants they lost. your character waits until the last minute to till the garden and is exhausted afterward.

Unlikely to go wrong:

your character plants tomatoes too early, and when it freezes on a spring night, the tomatoes die.

Also unlikely to go wrong:

your character didn't wait for the compost to turn to dirt, and they just tossed it right onto the garden. This causes the plants to wilt as the rotting straps caused the plants to mold and then start to rot. Improbable, but still technically

in the realm of possibilities:

your character makes raised beds for their garden. They spend the week planting the garden. That night, a rainstorm comes up, and when they go outside in the morning, all of the raised beds have come apart from the pressure of the wet dirt on their sides. Improbable, but still technically your character planted a garden in a place that was too shaded for the plants, and they didn't get enough sunlight. The plant's growth is limited, and they have to plant triple the amount they normally would to produce the crop size they need. Also improbable, but still technically in the realm

of possibilities:

your character plants a garden on a rocky area. The seeds sprout, but with nowhere for their roots to grow, they soon wither and die. Thanks for listening. Until next time. Happy wordsmithing.