{"id":3554,"date":"2020-03-28T19:59:49","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T19:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2020-03-28T20:16:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T20:16:16","slug":"social-distance-in-gardening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3554","title":{"rendered":"Social Distance in Gardening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spring\nis here! The vernal equinox, March 19th , marked this year\u2019s first day of\nspring, and we enjoy the early stages of spring growth. Here are examples: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/td>\"\" <\/td><\/tr>
\n The\n Australian Wonga Wonga Vine (Pandorea pandorana) produces a curtain of\n cream-colored blossoms.\n <\/td>\n The\n Chinese Peony (Paeonia lactiflora): a common species with a great range of\n cultivars. \n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\narrival of the spring season presents Natures gifts, delights our senses, and\ninspires our gardening urges. This has always been a welcome time of the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nusual seasonal gardening activities include garden societies\u2019 regular meetings\nand annual shows and sales. The early spring weeks have been filled with\nopportunities to share gardening ideas, techniques and plants with friends in\nthe local community, to examine exemplary plants at regional showcases, and\neven to go out of town to attend national shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nyear is different because the coronavirus threat requires everyone to avoid\npublic contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\ngarden-related events in the Monterey Bay area have been cancelled or are on\nthe verge of being cancelled. Before you travel to an event of interest, verify\nthat it is still happening! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\ndistant example was the 2020 Clivia Show & Sale, organized by The North\nAmerican Clivia Society at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, and scheduled for\nlast weekend. This rare event in a great location was worth considering for a major\nweekend trip, but alas it was cancelled, as were countless other garden events\nthroughout California (and likely the rest of the country). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardeners\nand the gardening community are feeling multiple impacts of these\ncancellations. Many other elements of America and the world are being affected\nas well, of course, but let\u2019s focus for the moment on gardening. The impacts\ninclude loss of interaction between like-minded members of the community,\ninterruption in the continuity of non-profit garden societies, and loss of\nrevenues that sustain those societies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nsituation undermines gardening\u2019s social dimension. The good news is that\ngardeners have ways to stay busy and productive even while sheltering in place.\nHere are three ideas to consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfirst priority is to care for your garden. Plants continue to grow during these\ndifficult times, and to benefit from regular care by gardeners. Reserve a\ncouple hours each rain-free day to keep your plants irrigated, pruned and\nweeded, and enjoy their contributions to your environment. This includes mild\nexercise, which keeps us healthy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\npriority is to advance your gardening knowledge and skills. Assuming you have\naccess to the Internet, search for information about plants you have\u2014or would\nlike to have\u2014in your garden. A basic search by plant name will yield general\ndescriptions. Searching for \u201chow to cultivate [plant name]\u201d will display\nhelpful advice. Try this method on YouTube.com for video demonstrations by both\namateurs and professionals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\npractice, the Internet can support your advanced education in gardening and provide\na respite from binging on entertainment resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nthird way to enrich the days of maximum social distance involves additional\nuses of the Internet: the social media, particularly e-mails with your\ngardening friends, garden-related blogs that support limited dialogs, Twitter\nmessaging, and Facebook pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nhave begun posting frequent \u201cgarden clips\u201d on my long-time dormant Facebook\npage, with an emphasis on topics that are current to the Monterey Bay area. You\nare welcome to sample these clips and to comment. Browse to facebook.com\/thomas.karwin.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future\ncolumns will include ideas in support of these three constructive ways for\ngardeners to shelter in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile,\nfor up-to-date health information, browse to www.cdc.gov<\/a> and click on \u201cCoronavirus Disease 2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take\ngood care of yourself during these difficult times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom\nKarwin is past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, Monterey\nBay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and Monterey Bay Iris Society, and a\nLifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999\u20132009). Visit ongardening.com<\/a> for previous columns.
\nSend comments or questions to gardening@karwin.com.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spring is here! The vernal equinox, March 19th , marked this year\u2019s first day of spring, and we enjoy the early stages of spring growth. Here are examples: The Australian Wonga Wonga Vine (Pandorea pandorana) produces a curtain of cream-colored … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[217,218],"tags":[215],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-2020-2","category-spring-quarter-essays-2020-2","tag-social-distance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2WCVL-Vk","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3560,"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions\/3560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}