Friday, April 17, 2015

got a late start with my starts



There was snow on my vegetable garden just last week.  A winters worth of compost  has been exposed by the melting snow, and the Blue Jays are very happy about that,  as they strut around with eggshell or orange peel in their beaks.

I  am surveying the scene, wondering where to start, knowing from
years of experience that my plans are just not going according to plan.  But being an optimist, I make plans anyway.  I say this is this the year that I won't plant, or will plant this or that.  The thought of growing a truly huge pumpkin still  sounds good to me. But may-be not so many tomatoes and/or green beans, would be good.
I could give the soil in one part of my garden a rest for this year,  that would be good for it's productivity. But I would still have to keep it tilled. 

One year I spaced the rows really wide,  sorta double spaced the rows.  That year I thought it would b so easy to till around the plants and keep my garden more or less weed free.....HA!!!!   Orphaned  plants began showing up on my doorstep, in the bed of  the truck, even beside the garden, at first I thought people might have been trying to help me out, then as the season went on I realized it was probably revenge for the mysterious  grocery sacks of snap beans that appeared on their doorsteps. There they were, those wicked souls watching me try to weed around those now too close together plants, and laughing their wicked laughs. I solemnly swear that I will leave no more mysterious bags of vegetables on doorsteps.  And that I will only plant 2 Zucchini seeds, not that I ever was one to leave ....Ok I lie like rug.

I tell myself that I am no longer going to plant potatoes, but I will find a few  forgotten ones and plant those anyway, and I know it.   Someone will have a lot of left over tomato plants or perhaps pepper plants and well they will make the price irresistible, and I will buy them  for fear that the great Karmic foot of life will stomp on me and I will turn  into a stain on the sidewalk of life, if I let them go to waste.  That makes gardening sound almost dangerous, thought  having the Fates smile on you when you live in an area where there isn't enough water available to water regularly, and where some clever ungilate has posted signs inscribed with 'This way to the all you can eat salad bar'  in the language of  "venison" ; is a very good thing.  Gardening has it's own special rewards though.

I ache from the first days digging, but it is almost a joyful ache, especially after I took some ibuprophen, it lets me know I am as alive as the earth I walk on, the earth I turn, the earth I pull weeds from, and the earth that feeds me.  




YUM!, guest blogger on making Naan....something I am new to and still working on

  Naan is tasty!   I wanted to make some, and from there on out, wellllllllllll, it's been a learning experience!   And I don't give...