Gardening is good for the soul
By JOYCE COMINGORE
Philosophers have proclaimed for years that, “Gardening is good for the soul.” Really-well let me count the ways. My first thoughts are about the aches and pains, being drenched in perspiration, and cruel taskmaster plants. But really, if I think of it as my outdoor gym for workouts, bending, stretching, lifting, and when I’m done, the feeling of accomplishment that fills my soul cannot be duplicated. What an outlet for my anger and frustrations. Tossing and pitching and slamming takes a lot of that out of me, being exhausted feels good. I can remember Victory Gardens for the war effort, (I was a mere infant with great recall), and now Community Gardens are springing up again. A real way to be neighborly and bond. What more can you ask for-sunshine, fresh air, mental therapy, exercise, and joy that pays off with nourishing foods to eat and flowers to provide color and joy.
October in Florida starts our dry season. Farmers are busy plowing and planting. This is the month to prepare the beds and set out those sweet, juicy, red strawberries. Top Yale researchers give strawberries the highest over-all nutrition rating, ranking them at 100, the highest possible score. Full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, strawberries are your healthiest choice for maintaining and improving your health. Listed as a natural “super” food, eating just eight strawberries a day, has been shown to lower blood pressure, improve your heart and memory health, and reduce obesity and some cancers. Elite athletes from around the world requested strawberries to be served at the Bejing Olympics. Women who are pregnant should eat fresh or frozen strawberries at least once a week.
Trivia? Arizona and California both have cities named Strawberry. Strawberry Crater Wilderness is in Arizona and Strawberry Mountain is in Oregon. There are 200 seeds on a strawberry, they have their seeds on the outside. The strawberry was a symbol for the Goddess of Love.
The condensed version of planting strawberries in the Florida Gardener magazine is- “A good rule of thumb is that one-hundred plants will provide between a pint and a quart of fruit a day for several months during the season. Be careful to keep the soil moist by watering every two to three days and be sure to mulch and then fertilize the strawberry plants with 1 pound of 6-6-6 fertilizer for each 100 square feet of bed, plus an additional band of fertilizer 6″ deep along the center of the beds every eight weeks. Watch out for caterpillars, slugs, thrips , mites and snails looking to munch on your plants and treat them with an insecticidal soap or even beneficial nematodes.” I remember my parents having a big patch of strawberries when I was young, but today’s gardens and lots can’t afford to tie up that much space. We make do with small strips of ground, clay strawberry pots, and hanging baskets.
I love my son’s set-up in Bradenton. He has a hydroponic row of five pipes, with five foam square boxes stacked on each pipe full of soilless mixture, 50 percent vermiculite and 50 percent perlite. At the side is a barrel, like my rain barrel, with a pump on a timer that sends out the fertilizer water inside to drip into each row daily. The solution then trickles down, feeding the five boxes with plants in them. He has 5 more pipes for the rest of his gardening, five boxes per pipe. This last week-end he set out 80 strawberry plants. He does this every year. He decided to clean his present soilless soil instead of buying all new soil. To do this, he needed 3 gallons of hydrogen peroxide. Being a milk truck driver, he stopped to buy it at one of his drugstore customers. Two weeks ago my granddaughter sent a facebook message that the FBI was at their front door asking for her dad, my son. I thought she was kidding around, but he later came on to say that he, in his work uniform, was on the security camera of the drug store and they had to report the unusual amount of hydrogen peroxide sold. His company’s boss had to come down and I.D. him off the film. The FBI inspected his set up and cleared him. This has been fodder for our family to tease our terrorist, only it’s not really funny. We are grateful for such security. He needed more soil, so now he buys the mix and doesn’t recycle.
Strawberries are members of the Rose family, Rosaceae, genus fragaria, that includes includes apples, plums, pears, and cherries. They were once called strew-berries for the way their runners grew strewn along the ground. The name eventually evolved. Strawberries are not really berries or fruit in the “botanical” sense, they are an aggregate fruit. The seeds are the real fruit, like sunflower seeds. The berries enlarged receptacle is not reproductive material, so they must be picked at full ripeness. They cannot ripen once picked. Temperatures are a major factor on them and can override day length as a control mechanism for blooming. Cold causes poor flowering and fruit formation. My son is fighting the heat right now, that’s making them wilt and stop their flowering and fruit production. Ahhh, the nurturing spirit is in full force. Plus, this is food for the Soul.
“The kiss of the sun for pardon, the songs of birds for mirth, One is closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth.”
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Joyce Comingore is a Master Gardener; Past-President of the James E Hendry Chapter of the American Hibiscus Society and National Board Member; and member of the Garden Club of Cape CoralBy J