Gardens- a 3 year biography

The first summer we moved to the Ridge, we didn't have a chance to garden. Actually, in early August of that summer I dug up a small rectangular plot between the house and barn and planted some late season greens. There was something missing for me, not being able to sow and weed and harvest regularly. That season lost probably facilitated a bit of overproduction the next summer, when my neighbor and I ordered over $100 worth of seeds for our co-garden. Now, that's probably small potatoes to a farm, but for a kitchen garden feeding 2 families? A bit overkill. We ordered through the Good Tern and Tim, the manager at the time, said, 'so, how many acres you farming?' A more accurate question would have been, 'so, how many seasons will these seeds last you?'
We' re going on 3, and i have a feeling there will still be some left for next year.

That first true season, the summer of '08 was pretty impressive. H and I hand- turned and created beds for a field about 1/4 acre. We planted pretty much everything but corn. We brought endless wheelbarrows of composted manure down from the driveway- maybe only a distance of 30 yds., luckily downhill with a full barrel and empty on the return, but still. We were dedicated haulers. While it was satisfying and impressive even to ourselves to see our work (with 4 children between the ages of 2-5) and our harvest was pretty awesome, it was too much work. By the end of the season, we were burned out. Having never gardened on such a scale before, we made mistakes like planting 3 rows, about 12 ft. long, of cucumbers. The majority of those fruits were either eaten by our chickens- until they boycotted- or offered for free on the road. Hundreds of pounds of cucumbers. We nearly lost our squash harvest to cucumber beetles. We lost most of our onions to weeds. We learned that you have to trellis tomatoes. Really, you do. You know what happens if you don't? Tomato jungle, impossible to pass and hence... many rotted tomatoes. Our mistakes weren't for lack of knowledge, i mean, i think it's widely accepted that yes, you do cage tomatoes. This is not a hot gardener's debate. But, pressed for time, it's easy to throw the plants in the ground and figure they'll be ok for a week or so and in the mean time get caught up in saving your squash and harvesting and then....it's too late. Jungle.

Last year, our second season, was better on the planning and implementation front. We halved the size. We caged the tomatoes immediately. We planted peas once the trellis' were already installed. We weeded the onions. We planted ONE row of cucumbers. We covered all squashes immediately after planting. I felt pretty good about our skills, but the weather worked against us. The rainiest season in memory meant that many crops just failed. Several were put in late. A bit demoralizing, really.

This year, we've gone our separate ways. What's true is that if you can't see your garden from the windows of your home, you are less likely to tend it well. For our neighbors, it was a walk to come over to do anything- plant, tend, harvest. Even for us, living just 25 yards away, tops, it was out of sight out of mind. And worse of all, the size took the magic out of it. There was no time to baby the plants, to observe the growth, to experiment. It was all catch-up and crisis.

So, we've scaled back but already, I'm loving what we have going. We've fenced in an area roughly 35x20 ft, but more oblong shape than rectangular. I'm having to re-create beds that were previously random and haphazard for perennials, but this week thanks to a visit from kevin's folks, it got a big boost. We've got in broccoli and cauliflower, cabbage and brussel sprouts, kale, chard, spinach, lettuce, carrots and radishes. Today i planted a first round of beets, kohlrabi, and turnips. One end is being sacrificed for the kids sand palace (truly, it's nicer than our house), and I'm planning a little stone patio for some chairs and small table. I place to lounge, enjoy, and observe the garden instead of rushing around all the time trying to save everything from going to seed, weed, or pest.

It would be easy to look back on the past 3 years and feel frustration that yet again, we're starting over. Having established beds that you mulch and rotate and build fertility in is 1/2 the work of getting good quality produce. But I'm coming to realize that this process has really been a relationship building exercise with our land. When we first moved here, I had a whole slew of assumptions about where the kids would most like to play and what we would grow and create here. Very little of that has come to pass. Instead, it's been an organic unfolding and we've abandoned things I was pretty hell-bent on, and started creating spaces I hadn't remotely envisioned when we first step foot here. Going slow has so many advantages, and this year I'm hoping that by taking the 'less is more' approach, more will be revealed.

We're here!!

Wow. the blogs. It's been so long since I've read these posts and from my previous blog, pottyparty.blogspot, that it was almost like reading about someone else's life! Major head trip.

If you know us, and you are reading this, then you probably know we are still on the Ridge. It's been 3 years, we're going into our 4th summer here and getting ready to pull the roof off our house and do some major renovation. For 3 years, we've been hemming and hawing about how to live here, get the space we need (3 bedrooms for 4 people instead of 1 bedroom for 4 people), achieve energy efficiency and continue to bring this place to it's potential. I've wanted to walk a few times. Too much money. Too much time. Too much work.

But out here, along with the 'too much' of work, money and time, you also get much green, much silence, many frogs and perhaps a few too many (hungry foxes); many birds and much wind, endless stars and many hills, many wonderful neighbors and much, much, much peace. I know that there are many places where I could live with the too much work/time/money and fewer and fewer that include the green/silence/frogs/birds/wind/stars/hills/and peace. So here we stay.

I hope to write more, again. I hope you'll visit.