Garden Spot
Many times I have planted a garden and most of the time it kind-of works. My husband is the main push for me to develop my skills as a gardener. I know it is good to have fresh veggies, but somehow I just can't find the momentum to keep up with a garden until the end.
Why is harvesting the hardest part of gardening?? I don't know when to pick anything besides the tomatoes, only because they turn red. The watermelon, squash, and melons are all really hard to read. When are they ready? We had a great crop of cantaloup last summer and one by one the ants bore into them and ate the insides out, before we even knew they were ripe. I feel so bad when this happens. Gardening is not cheep, we have been paying for water, bought the plants, or seeds, all of the soil amendments that were needed, and fertilizer through the growing season; it is not likely that any of our gardens have produced enough to make back all that we have spent.
Why then do I even want to garden. Well first off, if I need to use this skill to ever feed my family I would like to have it sharp; the world is at a very unstable place and having a backup food source could be a HUGE blessing. Next, it is a outlet for my husband and I to help our kids learn how to work. This is a skill that is becoming less and less important in today society. I want to have my kids feel the thrill in having to work at something so hard, like digging in our rock hard ground, and then tilling and tending to a little plant that will someday grow to be a food they like to eat. It really is a beautiful experience to create something living and raise it to its full potential. Also I love the way a garden looks and the smell in the evening of the wet dirt is a treat to me. I know it might sound crazy but we all can find something good about having a garden.
I felt that by posting my weekly ups and downs of gardening, I might keep my momentum up until harvest time. If any of you would like to join me now's the time. It is just peeking into spring and the weather in my neck of the woods is going fast on into summer. So I say grab a shovel, study the area around your home that sees sun and plant something with me.
April
