Monday, August 9, 2010

Garden State

swiss chard, carrots, beans, beets and lettuce...yum.

It is good, very good, to be able to grow your own food. Watching our garden grow from seed to luscious, leafy produce has done more than promote watering taste buds, it's helped promote a bond with the earth, the changes in weather, even the birds and deer who occasionally pay a visit to try to steal a nibble.
When I was a kid, my parents grew food in our backyard. I have fond memories of digging in the dirt to uncover golden skinned potatoes, peeking under broad leaves to find squash and zucchini... and not so fond memories of picking beans and pulling weeds. I still hate picking beans.
mom helping out with the garden during her visit this june.

Our modest raised veggie bed that we built at our cabin this spring has yielded some yummy results so far and despite one month with no rain and little supervision, we managed to get a decent harvest when we were up this weekend.
Being the first garden my husband or I have had in our adult life, there are definitely some lessons learned that we can apply to next season. I've discovered the importance of garden markers (I don't know how many times I planted seeds on top of other seeds) and that bean seedlings don't like to be transported 2.5 hours by car and ferry (my poor little beanlings took a beating on the commute from our city home where they were germinated).
Perhaps the biggest lesson of all is to keep a close eye on our cat when he's in the vicinity. Those raised veggie beds nearly became his personal outdoor litter box on more than one occasion, saved only by a last minute squirt with the garden hose. I guess you could say my cat learned a lesson, too.

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