Through the Year in a Garden
July 25, 2011 in: Reflections on the River
January. This is the year. I’m going to eat better, exercise more and save money. The garden will help me do all three! Besides the usual, boring stuff, I’m going to try new exotic produce. And this will be the year I master the pressure canner. Next January, we’ll be feasting on zucchini corn relish, pickled okra, stewed tomatoes and strawberry rhubarb pie. Mmmm… I can almost taste it now. I can’t wait to get into the garden.
February: The minute the snow is gone, I am going to get the garden tilled. That’s the key – get started early. And I will have the first and the biggest tomatoes on the block. It’s all about the bragging rights.
March: So the snow is gone. But I can’t even begin to till until it dries out a little. When it comes time to plant, I should start with the basics – tomatoes, green beans, peppers. Maybe pumpkins this year.
April: If it doesn’t stop raining I’m not going to get any garden planted! If it’s not raining next weekend and I can get my friend to bring his tiller and I can get it done in the morning before I have to go to that thing in the afternoon. But it will get done because this is the year the garden will shine.
May: Oh happy day! Going to the greenhouse! I’m going to get slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes and canning tomatoes; green peppers and hot peppers and yellow peppers; geraniums and onion sets; cucumber seed and zuchinni seed and watermelon and strawberries. How much for a bedding plant?! That’s just the plant, I still have to do all the work to grow it. It’s just as well, I wouldn’t be able to take care of all that any way.
June: Oh, little plot of soil, where the sun kisses the earth, this truly is Eden. Out here in the cool of the evening, tilling the soil, nurturing young plants. There’s a crab grass – the nerve of a weed to dare to grow in my garden. Off with its head. Just a few more days and the green beans will be ready. I can’t just taste them now, tender green beans with bacon. It doesn’t get any better than this.
July: Boy that crab grass sure grows fast! Gone for one week of vacation and it takes over. It doesn’t look like it’s hurting the tomatoes any, see how great they’re doing. Let me try to get that tomato cage straightened back up. All well, I guess it won’t hurt anything to grow sideways. I’ll take a picture of this lovely tomato on the kitchen counter and put it on facebook so everyone will see what a good gardener I am, they won’t have to see what the garden looks like. There’s another zucchini. And more green beans. If it wasn’t so hot, I’d drag the canner out and figure out how to can them. But I’ve already spent the better part of summer slaving over this dirt pile.
August: I’ve got 12 minutes before the sun gets up to get in here, pick the tomatoes and get out before the 114 degree heat and 99 percent humidity drop me dead. What kind of weeds are these anyway that can grow like that? Now for a cooler job, cleaning out 10 quarts of tomatoes from the freezer so I can make room for this year’s crop. Then I’ll google some more zucchini recipes.
September: Do you think a weed eater could cut through that mess?
October: Stupid, blasted, aggravating, black hearted, spawn of the devil tomato cages! I’ll show you how to get straightened out. There, got the garden all cleaned. Really, it did pretty good considering how much attention I gave it. Next year if I just stay ahead of crabgrass I can really have something.
November: Why, yes, these are my homegrown tomatoes in the chilli. That’s my secret ingredient. You just can’t get this flavor any other way.
December: Six inches of snow and the Christmas program is cancelled? Oh no! At least it’s good insulation and moisture for the strawberries. That reminds me, I’ve got some strawberries in the back of the freezer. Even though they’re three years old, they still taste like a spring day. I just can’t wait to be back in the garden!
