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News from Cottage Corners

We had a reel reach 100k views on Instagram last week and there are a lot of new faces here as a result! So a heartfelt WELCOME if you’re new and THANK YOU to everyone who is returning.

It has been really exciting to see our little “corner” of the world gaining ground. Connecting with people like you, who are passionate about gardening and growing food, is what it’s all about. Cheers to you!

This week I’m thinking about…

Sustainable effort. Over the course of the next several months, we will have increasingly more to do in our gardens until the harvest is preserved in the fall. And while all that activity is fun and rewarding, I have found it hard to keep up at times. So lately I’ve been thinking about ways to make my efforts more sustainable this year.

• The first thing I’m not doing anymore is growing too much. You wouldn’t think this was possible in a small garden but ohhh it is. So when I was doing up my garden plan this year, I was really careful not to overdo it.

• Next, I’m only scheduling garden tasks on weekends. That way, I can be a little more flexible with my weekday evenings. Whether it’s the humdrum tasks of cooking and cleaning, or more enjoyable summer evening activities like swimming and socializing, I want to say yes without having to shuffle garden tasks around all week as things come up.

• Last: Less frequent watering. Vegetables are thirsty plants and containers can dry out really quickly. A good layer of mulch helps loads but this year I’m also trying ollas. Ollas (pronounced “oyas”) are clay vessels that are buried in the garden and filled with water as-needed (usually just once per week). They’ve been used for thousands of years and I’m looking forward to seeing how they change the game in my garden.

So there you have it. My little blueprint for (hopefully) more sustainable effort in the garden this year. Let’s see how it goes.

- Bridgette

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