Chaotic Gardening for Peace in a Chaotic World

The last couple of months have felt a bit dreary. I was wandering around my yard, contemplating the gloom of February, when I beheld the first crocus I’ve ever grown.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac, crocuses signify cheerfulness in flower language. This checks out. It popped up when everything else was gray and I was so desperate for color and beauty.

My daughter and I planted crocus corms last fall because the flower frequently features in the Frozen books. We planted some under her window and some around her Elsa playhouse.

A crocus is a great choice for the low maintenance gardener. They are pest resistant and will multiply and return year after year. If you plant saffron crocuses, you can harvest the world’s most expensive spice from them.

Gardening has taught me patience. I’ve become a fan of corms and bulbs for their low maintenance beauty, but they usually don’t grow and bloom until months after you plant them. Some, like crocuses, need to experience the harsh winter before they can bloom. There’s probably a metaphor or two in there somewhere.

As I await the debut of my tulips and daffodils, I also look forward to homegrown vegetables. With the uncertainty of markets in our country right now, it’s nice having a little victory garden to fall back on.

So what can you plant in February in Alabama? The Alabama Extension Service has a great gardening guide with suggested dates, and the Farmer’s Almanac has a tool where you can enter your zip code and get a custom planting calendar for your zip code. I don’t follow all of the rules they lay out—I’m what the internet calls a “chaos gardener”—but it’s still a great reference, especially if you’re not a “throw it out and see what happens” gardener yourself. 

I’ve started tomato and pepper seeds inside, but few have germinated. I’m new to the seed-starting aspect of gardening. If I can plant it outside and neglect it, it has a much better chance of producing something for me. Outside, I have lettuce, kale, sprouting broccoli, tatsoi, spinach, and arugula seedlings in pots, and I also have various herbs, carrots, garlic, and onions in the ground. All of these plants are fairly cold tolerant and seem to tolerate my neglect as well, but a few of the pots may need to be brought inside if we have another freeze.

My other tasks in the garden right now are creating new beds and expanding the ones I have. I build flower beds by laying down cardboard and putting leaves, grass clippings, and other natural mulch on top. If you’re feeling sassy, buy some Black Kow and throw that on there, too. There are more precise methods for lasagna gardening, but I do whatever variation of that I want based on what’s available and it seems to work for me.

I find peace in my chaos gardening. It keeps me from being too much of a perfectionist. It’s experimental and creative and even whimsical. Sometimes I forget what I’ve planted and am pleasantly surprised. And don’t we need whimsy and pleasant surprises right now?

Times are weird. I’m coping in the garden, and I’ll be writing about it here. I’m no expert, so we are very much learning together. Hopefully, I can give you some ideas on how to make your space a little brighter, how to lower your grocery bill, and how to bring beautiful and beneficial critters to your yard.