The Garden's Year

The lucky one this year is...the yard! For the last six years I have ignored the yard at all three of my houses for very noble reasons. I was either: pregnant, nursing, or caring for someone under 2 who could not be trusted in the out of doors. This year the baby (not really a baby anymore) is almost three and I have much more time and brain power at my disposal to direct to the poor plants entrusted in my care.

Last week I was weeding (!) in the vegetable patch and the husband said, "Wow, it looks like a Norwegian garden." Which technically may not be true, but still, it's the thought that counts. This is the first year I have planted the beans early enough that they have actually needed a way to go up because they are growing! Thanks to my dad for teaching me how to do this simple and easy trellis.

These are some of the fifty or so raspberry bushes I have this year. Almost every one of them has berries all over it. I am so excited for this year's jam crop. I think last year the birds ate what few we had and since I didn't do any pruning or maintenance on them they really suffered. Good thing I can parent them this year.

The tomatoes are about one foot taller since the fifty-year rain we had a few weeks back. I think I need a great spaghetti sauce recipe to use these up. And by the way, square foot gardening really is the easiest way to get great vegetables. Check out http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ if you want to learn more.

If you plant two rows of corn one week, and two rows of corn the next week, and so on, you will have corn all summer. Just make sure you get a variety that is about 62 days to maturity so you aren't waiting until August 23 to get the first ears of corn to your table.

This is the flower basket I have managed to remember to water every day so far. Usually they are dead and brown by now.

The point is, whatever you focus your time on will yield results. My dad always tells me that the success of any garden is measured by the number of times the gardener's shadow crosses it. Every time I work in the yard it seems that I am reminded of universal truths about life. If you pull a weed when it's small, it won't go to seed and spread somewhere else. (Like a bad habit?) If you keep the dirt watered and loose, it's easier to get the weeds out. (Like our hearts?) If you don't prune a tree and the branches grow over each other, it rubs the bark off and allows the tree to be open to disease. (Like a wrong choice leading to more wrong choices?) And keeping the soil free of weeds allows the desired plants to grow to maturity and produce good fruit. (Internet, anyone?).

There is so much to learn from the Good Earth. (Also one of my favorite books. Read it if you haven't.)