Sharon Astyk makes us all feel better about not getting that dream vegetable garden planted this year. Its a great article. If your garden isn’t as full as you’d planned, don’t panic. Growing food is a steep learning curve, and whatever you plant, your garden will get better every year, what was once hard work becomes easier, and even the most messed up garden still produces some food. Don’t panic!
Ok, stop. Guess what. You aren’t doomed, and my family is pretty much like yours. You see, there were these sheep, if you’ll remember. That took care of the strawberries, the early tomatoes. Then there was this book – do you remember that, the thing that meant that I didn’t even start until June? And then there were a host of reasons, some real and some stupid, why half my garden is in cover crops or something else – I could claim it was because of my deep commitment to the soil, but that wouldn’t explain why I was crawling around on my knees sticking random unplanted onions in between things…onions, folks. Do you know when you are supposed to plant onions here? The middle of April. And I was planting them on June 26. Nor would it explain why there are sad looking hot pepper plants looking at me and crying “plant me….for the love of god…plant me…I could fruit still before frost if you’d just get me the hell out of my flat, where I’ve been since March…!”And if I don’t get them planted by the time I go to Boston on Monday morning, they are mostly going on the compost pile.
Am I panicked? Guilty? Nope, (well, a little), but only because I’ve been here so often that I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with the reality – all the perfect gardens live in my head, and the truth is, every year’s garden is totally messed up. The thing is, I end up eating a lot of food from that messed up garden, and it does get better every year. Or at least every year without sheep in the front yard. And since the disaster is bad, but not that bad yet, we’ve all got another year of screw ups.
Establishing a garden takes time and energy. Every year things get a little easier, the trees grow bigger, and the learning curve gets less steep. Relax, part of living a more natural life is to try to get less stressed, and the nature of gardening means that some things fail and some do well.
Most of all, remember that you are not doomed. Your next garden will be better, because you will have learned from experience. You have mastered something – next year you will do remarkable things. You will probably make a whole new set of mistakes next year, and come up with a new, creative range of personal excuses. See, you’ve learned something!
