A Practical Gardener's Guide to Growing Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs

This past Memorial Day marked three years we have lived in this house. And with home ownership the grown up thing to do since the year we've moved in was to plant a small garden. At the very least a tomato plant or two the first year. The next year the garden expanded, growing most everything from seeds. This year I ripped out a tree and two bushes to make room in our small backyard. I even went as far as to make a compost pile (that's beginning to smell like a herd of cattle). But the thing is I hate yard work. I break out the weed whacker once a month at best, I do a poor job sweeping grass clippings off the driveway, and really only rake the leaves to avoid the death stares I'd get from my neighbors who literally trim the grass along their sidewalk with a pair of scissors.

So despite my yard-care short comings, I've become somewhat of a gardener. People with gardens are just like people that like to who restore old cars, just like people that love to cook, and like people that enjoy being crafty. All these people, they're filling a need to be creators. They're completely in charge of something, they have power over it. With the economy in it's current state they say home gardens have become the popular trend this summer. Gardening is the new black. It might be reasonable to assume that all these new gardens are just as much about being able to control something in a world full of things totally out of our hands as it is about saving money on food. With everything in our lives dragging us along, people find comfort in having something in life that we get to drag around.

Now with all that said I find gardening neither calming nor refreshing. While watching pounds of food come from a small little seed is beyond amazing - beyond complete human comprehension, the sweat from having to water on hot humid days, and dirt that you can never quite get out from under the fingernails are something I could do without. And despite my best efforts the slugs destroy my dill, insects make a buffet out of my bok choy, and birds stake out my strawberries. By the middle of August I'll be so over this whole gardening business. I'll be up to my ears in tomatoes and looking forward to fall's first frost.