Trees are budding, flowers
are blooming and as I take it all in, I recall my past tendencies toward naïve optimism
regarding impending vegetable and herb gardens. I used to love going to the
farm and garden centers to pick out green plants that could eventually produce
tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans and lots of different herbs. I was always
careful to select only the strongest, greenest seedlings. Each little dirt
filled cup in my cart added to my soon-to-be-garden fantasy.
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| Seeds from last year's beans are quickly becoming this year's bean seedlings. |
The fantasy included
seedlings planted exactly four inches apart in neat, perfectly parallel rows.
With no weeds in sight, the newly planted seedlings stood tall, reaching for
the sun as they seemed to smile at me for giving them such a fertile home. Fantasy-me
always smiled back and gave them plenty of water so they would thrive on my
fraction-of-an-acre urban farm.
My future garden was a
modern-day Eden. Then I’d get to the front of the check out line, at which
point my fantasy would begin to disintegrate. When the cashier gave me the
total, I was always knocked abruptly into reality. “Are you sure that total is
correct? I mean, $68.29 seems like an awful lot for some itty bitty, wilting
seedlings.”
“Yes, Ma’am. The total, which
also includes your gardening tools, tomato stakes and pre-fertilized soil, is
correct. Will that be cash or charge?”
After years of letting my
fantasies get the best of me while depleting our coffers, I have finally
learned a few lessons.
Be Patient. Protect Your
Cotton Candy and Roller Coaster Funds.
It is never too late to
plant a garden. It can, however, be too early. Trying to extend the growing
season by getting an early jump on planting only serves to evoke Jack Frost who
will, in return, cause a late-season freeze that will kill everything you just
broke your back to plant. I’m convinced garden centers put seedlings out early
to give us the opportunity to purchase and plant our gardens twice. This tends
to double their profits at the same time we’re dipping into our vacation
stashes.
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| Last year's garden before the plants matured and choked each other to death, causing the early demise of our dream urban farm season. |
Use Last Year’s Crop to Seed
This Year’s Garden.
The first seedlings to hatch
under my high-humidity dome of saturated peat pellets were the ones I’d saved
from last year’s harvest. The store-bought seeds eventually poked through, but
they weren’t as lush and hearty. Not only will using seeds money, but drying
and storing seeds from the garden will also most likely produce stronger plants
than store-bought seeds.
Don’t Over-Exuberantly Over
Plant.
While it is entirely
possible to fit dozens of four-inch seedlings on a relatively small plot of
land, they won’t fit quite as well when they reach a mature size. Don’t be like
me and think you can grow enough vegetables to share with the neighborhood if
you can only fit one more row of lettuce between the cucumbers and tomatoes.
Overcrowding kills. I believe I’ve finally got it through my brain that a
sparse spring garden will grow into a lush, productive summer garden.
Maybe this year I’ll finally
be one of those people who shows up to every gathering with bags of produce to
give away so it won’t, heaven forbid, go to waste.
Micki Bare, mother of three, wife, daughter & writer is the author of Thurston T. Turtle children's books.
Email: mickibare (at) gmail.com
Connect with Micki on Google+
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Follow Micki on Twitter: @TurtleAuthor
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