What a Life!

Every year since I’ve lived in Nebraska, I’ve planted a vegetable garden. I can’t say I’ve been very successful at it. But I can say, that each year I’ve been more successful the year before. When I lived at Calvert, the soil had a lot of clay in it and you had to have just the right moisture level in order to be able to pull weeds because the soil would turn to stone when it got dry and you’d just pull the tops off. When we moved to this house in August, the previous owners had a garden and their tomatoes were still standing and producing the most incredible tomatoes I’ve ever eaten. I still have the tomato cages they left, but I can’t say I’ve had the same success with tomatoes.

Each year, the weeds have been a major problem, as has been getting outside to work in the garden. I don’t get out there necessarily right away when I should to get things planted, and then it’s warm and the weeds go crazy and I can barely keep up with them. Last year I kept up with them really well until one day late in July when I knelt in the grass while I weeded and got grass cuts all over my legs. I was pregnant with Joey so I wasn’t sure what I could take. My legs itched and burned so bad – every time I moved it took about 60 seconds for the burning to subside. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night. When I called my doctor to see what I could take, the nurse told me to wear pants when I worked in my garden. Yeah, next time. It took me about a month to get out there again, and by then, everything was overripe and the weeds were up to my knees.

Last fall I put a big question mark by gardening and decided I would ponder it over the winter. Was I gardening because that’s what my mom and my grandma’s did so that’s what I should do too (my mom was a SAHM as I am, and my grandma’s raised their children in the days before we had SAHMs and WOHMs)? Or was gardening something I really liked doing? I gave myself permission to quit if it wasn’t really something I wanted to do. With that in mind, I let Steve plant alfalfa over the entire plot around Labor Day. It will restore nutrients to the soil, and act as a cover crop if I don’t get anything planted.

I didn’t want to quit gardening, though, without going through and really thinking about what I had been good at and what I had failed at. I looked at each crop individually and listed the pros and cons of each. Were they more trouble than they were worth? Is stuff from the grocery store just as good or better? Did it grow fairly easily or did I have problems with bugs or other things? If I had problems, what were they and what are my options for dealing with them? Are my options for overcoming those problems worth the trouble of getting the crop?

Even with permission to quit and a history of failure, I still seem to have the itch to plant a garden. I had thought I might still garden this year, just on a smaller scale. Yesterday I started going through what I might plant and actually mapping out a garden plan. I know, revolutionary idea. Usually I just go out there when I get around to it and start planting things, and then I have problems like corn right next to where I put the sprinkler and some parts of the garden don’t get water.

Last year I planted vine crops like squash and cucumbers, and once they got going, they took over the entire garden. When I cleared everything out so Steve could plant alfalfa, the tomatoes, peppers, and Swiss chard was still going strong (in spite of lack of attention) so I left it. Where the vines had taken over, there were very few weeds. My peas hadn’t grown at all, and my ground cherry tomatoes never came up. There was quite a bit of rotton squash and cucumbers that got hauled off. I put everything in piles, but Steve had to load it into the wheel borrow and dump it behind our shed so he saw all of the unpicked produce.

My initial plan was to just plant the west side of the garden which gets sun all day – the east side gets some shade but only for part of the morning. I’ve worked 4′ columns with 2′ walkways between in an attempt to do French intensive gardening (more vegetables in a smaller space means less weeds). My garden is large enough to get seven or eight of those columns each about 20′ long. I thought I might plant three or four of them and leave the rest in alfalfa which Steve thinks he’s going to mow.

I did an internet search on French intensive gardening and came up with some interesting links. I found one site that listed how many of each type of plant you can have per square foot – like four bean plants per square foot. The thing about mapping things out is that you have to think about when things mature and what they’re like when they mature. Cabbage hardly has any weeds between it once it’s done, but while it’s growing, it doesn’t use all of its space so weeds start growing. I decided to block my garden into 4′ x 4′ squares and plan it that way. So tomatoes, for example, would take the center four square feet of one of those cubes, leaving twelve square feet around them for something that does okay with a little bit of shade (I’m thinking grean beans or parsley, which can be planted at a rate of four plants per square foot and get along well with tomatoes, supposedly).

Then I got to thinking that my vine crops could still be planted. I could plant them on the east side and leave the alfalfa up to grow as it pleased until the vines needed the space. I wouldn’t have to weed anything, and once the vines took over, I wouldn’t need the alfalfa anyway. So I may again try to grow cucumbers, muskmelon and some squash.

I also went though and listed what crops can be planted each month. I want to plant things as soon as possible so they mature before it gets too hot and so they’re bigger when the weeds start growing faster in the warm weather. Last year I planted my potted plants in mid-May, which is about right, but I didn’t get any seeds planted until after Memorial Day. It was still in the “range’ for everything, but the weeds were already a problem when little seedlings were trying to break through. This year, I shall plant what I can in April, finish the rest in May, and use drop cloths to cover it at night if I need to. So by May 15, everything should not only be planted but growing in full view as well.

Then when I plant things, I’ll make a note of the estimated days until harvest so I will know when to start checking for produce. Another one of my downfalls has been that things get too ripe and then they aren’t any good. That’s what happened with my corn last year, for example. If I know when to look and what to check for, I should be a lot better about actually harvesting things when they’re ready. I’ve also developed a good system of planning a menu and using the ingredients I have in my pantry; if I apply that same habit to using or preserving produce from my garden, I should be able to make use of most of it rather than inadvertently letting most of it go to waste.

My new camera will also help motivate me. Think of how much fun it will be to take pictures of those little plants as they come up and grow. Of course, I won’t want weeds in any of the pictures which will add further motivation to keep up with the weeding. Then I can post pictures on my blog and show everyone my pretty garden. Won’t that be fun?

I had so much fun working on planning my garden yesterday, as you can tell. But when I told Steve about some of my ideas, all he did was rain on my parade. Are you sure you really want to garden, or are you just in love with the idea of gardening? How are you going to keep up with the weeds? Every summer it gets hot and you quit going out there and then you don’t pick anything and all this stuff goes to waste. I know, I know, I know. I already addressed all of those issues before I began planning, and I haven’t bought any seeds yet and I won’t until I have a specific plan for overcoming each of the obstacles that’s tripped me up in the past.

Steve thinks gardening is just a bunch of hard work for nothing. If you can’t plant it and till it with a tractor, it’s a waste of time. I’m sure if he ever decided to knit, he would buy a machine to do it. Make a whole adult sweater in one evening instead of two or three months. That would be his style. Which is fine. No one’s forcing him to garden or anything. If he prefers vegetables from the store, he can go buy them himself and cook them himself, too.

He grumps at me sometimes because I go and do things and I don’t tell him about it until after the fact. Well, there’s a reason why I do that. It’s so I won’t have to hear all the reasons why I’m going to fail. If I go out and do something and do it successfully, reasons why I might fail are irrelevant as my accomplishments speak for themselves. And if I fail, well, I failed so none of his reasons why I might fail are news to anyone. Really.

Insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. As long as I learn from my failures (which, I admit, are many) and try not to repeat them, I see no reason why I shouldn’t plant a garden if I want to. And if he wants to rain on my parade and tell me all the reasons why I’m going to fail, well, gardens need rain, and I shall prove to him that he’s wrong by being successful.

This little red hen shall prevail!