Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

I’m so excited! I was determined to get a garden planted this year, and we got it done. Well, at least part of it. We ran out of room, so I’m trying to figure out where to put our onions, but nonetheless, we have a small garden. Yay!

We started our day by reading The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. The kids loved this book, and poured over the illustrations for quite some time.Then, we read about how plants grow, and we were primed and ready to start our own little adventure in gardening.

Unlike my last venture in gardening, this took quite a bit more effort. We had to clean out our much neglected corner flowerbed that used to house a Sago Palm, which is a horrible plant to have in any place where children play. That thing is evil. Even its remnants stabbed me quite a few times when I was cleaning out the bed. Though the plant has been gone since fall, its roots remained, and getting those suckers out was a chore! But after a few blisters, some back breaking work, and some bent back fingernails, I managed to get most [I hope enough] of them out.

While I was cursing the sago, Audrie spent her time creating our garden markers. She used old rocks that we kept digging out of the bed to make them.

When all was said and done, we had a garden fit for a king [at least in our eyes], complete with strawberries, tomatoes, potatoes, banana peppers, and soon-to-be onions. We also have some seeds that we are going to experiment with, and if it works, we’ll have green beans, bell peppers and basil as well.

It pales in comparison to the giant gardens I helped tend as a kid, but for us, it’s perfect. And if all goes well, I hope to expand it into our unutilized side yard.

xo

nessa dee

Accidental Garden

I love gardens. I want a garden. I planned on having a garden this year. I didn’t plan on having a dog who eats every plant I stick in the ground. Besides growing some potted tomato plants and herbs, I’ve never had a garden of my own. Growing up, we had a huge garden right next to our house along with peach trees and an orange tree. I loved getting out to pick the ripened crops, and I enjoyed helping my mom in the processes of cooking, canning, pickling, and freezing. As a child, there’s an excitement that comes with harvesting homegrown fruits and vegetables. I wanted my children to experience that excitement, so about 6 months before spring, I started to compost in order to provide some nice, organic fertilizer for my future garden. Then Trixie came along, and my gardening dreams quickly vanished along with my flowers. She removed several plants from my flowerbeds, dug up every last bit of our weed blocking liner, and even ate the produce cuttings I added to my compost bin. So, I gave up on the spring garden idea, pulled my compost bin around the side of the house, and forgot it existed. Once spring rolled around, I bought a few potted tomato plants, planted some onions in my front flower beds (we’re probably not going to get “yard of the month” anytime soon), and figured the kids could help Gangy and PaPa pick vegetables from their garden. End of story. It wasn’t until my grandparents came over to pick up something from my yard that I realized my compost bin had plans of its own. As I walked around to the seldom visited side yard, I was surprised to find the bin overflowing with a few large green plants. My grandmother quickly identified them as potatoes, and gave me the information I needed to see these plants through to harvest. (Basically I did nothing but watch for the blooms that indicated picking time.) I really didn’t expect anything to come from this plant. I thought it would bloom, I’d find no potatoes, the plant would die, become compost, and I’d forget about the whole thing. But, I underestimated the power of nature. The plant bloomed…I dug… and I found…

I was so excited, I mean, really excited, SUPER excited. Out of all my gardening experiences, this was off the charts! I didn’t do anything but throw a few potato cuttings in a bucket, and now I have fresh potatoes. How awesome is that? I let my kids share in the excitement by allowing them to pick the potatoes. I don’t think they appreciated the situation as much as I did, but they did enjoy the harvest. As for the rest of my gardening endeavors, my onions (pictured above along with some fresh green beans and a tomato from my grandparents’ garden) well, they’re fairing well. My tomatoes are a dismal failure (they were dying in their pots so I transplanted them in the backyard and my dog has eaten the only three ripening fruits we’ve had). And the kids have enjoyed helping their great-grandparents pick beans. But nothing beats delighting in the fruits of my laziness.

xo

Nessa Dee