If you would have told Kendra from 4 years ago that she would have a garden, she would have laughed in your face. As I've mentioned before, Kendra from 4 years ago couldn't even keep a house plant alive and had never so much as dug a hole in the ground. Now she has a garden. With green things growing in it. I'll be damned.
It's not much - probably just about 6 by 12 feet or so - but it's enough for 3 tomato plants, 3 cherry tomato plants, 4 heads of lettuce, 4 heads of broccoli, 5 various pepper plants, and some spring onions this year. More than enough for our little family of four.
This is the third summer I've had a garden, and I've learned a little bit every year. The first year, I learned you can love your garden a little too much. I watered my tomato plants every 1-2 days, and ended up with huge, green, vine-y plants but very little fruit. Last year, I learned that little cages (and some putrid spray called "liquid fence") are necessary to keep rabbits and raccoons from snacking on young plants. The plants were salvageable, but I ended up with some plants that didn't produce any peppers until very late in the season.
This year is off to a great start. I've watered (but not too much), applied the liquid fence, and protected most of the plants with cages. The spring onions are almost ready, everything is growing, and we even have a tiny pepper growing on one of our jalapeño plants.
No it's not much, but I've grown pretty proud of this little sliver of our yard. And one of the best parts is that Max enjoys helping in the garden, so it's something we can do together. I hope Charlie will be able to start getting his tiny hands dirty next summer. It's perfect, really, because I've found that gardening is a lot like parenting: full of hope & frustration, surprise & disappointment, exhaustion & reward. You sow the seeds not knowing what you're gonna get, but you tend those little plants the best you can. When you mess up, you hope the damage is reversible. And you learn as you go.
Kendra from 4 years ago would be amazed at what it's all become.
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2 comments:
Thanks for sharing! We're very hopeful for our first garden. I hope we aren't too disappointed!
That's a very poignant ending, my dear. Enjoyed the post, as always.
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