What makes a happy garden?

For me, the key to a happy garden is easy. It’s the living things. But not just the plants, flowers and vegetables, those are extra benefits. The heartbeats make me the happiest. It’s the birds, frogs, lizards, butterflies, bees and, yes, even the bats and spiders. The pollinators are the heart of an organic garden. The animals are the soul. Without them you could not have an organic garden that lives and thrives. I may never have a perfect flower or vegetable. Being organic, you’ll have some bug bites and blemishes, but true happiness, for me, is a garden that is full of life. It provides, not just for my family and many others, but for birds, toads and beneficial insects as well. This little patch of paradise is my way of changing the world. It’s a little bit of Eden the Lord has given me. I feel a tremendous responsibility to be a good steward and give back to nature and those around me.

Just breathe

Have you ever taken the time to visit a happy garden, and observe? To just be? It’s amazing. The sound of thousands of bees, the constant chatter of happy hummingbirds and the sight of beautiful butterflies visiting flower after flower will rejuvenate you. It will truly warm your heart, especially on a July day in the South. Pure joy is seeing others that visit and become mesmerized by a beautiful living garden.

If gardening doesn’t make you happy, you are doing it wrong

Stop worrying about the squash vine borers killing your zucchini plants or the Japanese beetles eating your roses. They are just part of gardening. Enjoy the produce and flowers early in the season before the bugs get to them. Pick off the bad bugs when they eventually come. Pull the dying plants and prune back the roses until fall when the beetles are gone. In the meantime, focus on making your garden a happy place for other living creatures. In particular, those that will help you. Adding water features and lights to your garden will help attract toads, frogs and lizards that can eat up to 1,000 bugs a night. A bat house added to an outbuilding or garden shed will help keep the mosquito and moth population down. Not to mention, I love to watch the bats at dusk.

Nature’s little helpers

An unintended and overlooked consequence of pesticide use is the damage done to the surrounding environment. Killing bad bugs with chemicals kills animals that feed on them as well. Bluebirds are bug eating machines. They can eat up to 2,000 bugs per day, including mosquitos. With help from our bluebird houses and native berry producing plants, we have counted over sixty Bluebird fledglings at LemonTree Farm in the last several years. Barn Swallows, Chickadees, Cardinals and Carolina Wrens (another personal favorite) also eat large quantities of bugs each day. Aphids, gnats and mosquitos make good hummingbird food. Most birds will use feeders if provided. Zinnias and sunflowers will also attract beautiful, yellow finches that love to feed on the seeds as they sing their happy songs. We feed our native birds in the winter, but come summer they are expected to do a little work around the farm to pay for their winter rations.

Enjoy the journey

It has taken years to establish my organic garden and learn not to sweat the disappointments. There will always be pests, fungus and weather damage, but that is the grandness of a garden. Every year is different and brings its own rewards and heartaches. Sometimes you win, but most of the time you learn and it’s so worth the effort for your family and our world.

Note: to learn more about bluebird preservation, visit NCBluebird.org.