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June 28, 2010
Part of my daily
Everything I've read suggests the closer the garden is to your front step the lower your chances of neglect. Surely that's true. But I've never found negative reasons very compelling. I visit the garden several times a day, sometimes for hours, because I love it. Not because I need to maintain it. I didn't grow up picking lettuces for sandwiches or snipping chives for omelets or chopping spearmint for soaps. So this "now what can I use this for" is a fresh, new experience for me. There's also some new weirdness going on every day in this small space. A strange mushroom, an odd growth habit, a new bug. My small crop of onions, for example, have started sprouting these:
...and these!
So this view from my bedroom keeps me going out there. And since planting isn't a one shot deal, there's always something to check. Did the lavender seeds sprout? How is the second planting of peas coming along? Should I plant more corn or give the stragglers a bit time?
The learning is not just coming from the garden. We leased a small part of our back plot to a grower who is furnishing fresh herbs and veggies to a local organic restaurant. From her dad I learned how to pinch back basil and prune tomatoes. When I shared my crazy "no till" scheme to grow corn, he said, ah yes, that's called lasagna gardening. Lasagna what? Sure enough, there's a book out there called Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza. I picked it up for my birthday. If I can ever let go of The Seasons on Henry's Farm by Terra Brockman, I'll consume it heartily as it looks like a great read.
Final note, on my birthday my 14th year old stepson Logan and I planted sunflowers against the garage wall using what I now know to be the lasagna method. That Logan took over the planting and then remarked "it was a fun way to spend the day", was birthday present enough for me. And look what Daddy brought home!
