I'm always late putting my garden in cuz we go to Kauai in April and by the time we get back and get everything ready to plant, it's mid-May. But it seems to work out. Our harvest is bountiful enough. We are generally late with weed pulling too -- leaving us a huge late spring task to tackle.
We inherited a large raspberry patch with this property which we bought in 1982. I have no idea how old the raspberry canes are, but I gotta think many decades and it amazes me they still are healthy and producing. This year they are especially happy since we cut down some big trees last summer that had begun to keep that area in shade most of the day. They, and our new lawn, are loving the sunshine!
And so are the weeds. I should have taken a "before" photo to really do this post justice, but here's the "after". Try to visual weeds all along both sides of the two 32-foot long rows and down the middle, in spite of that mesh stuff we laid down that's suppose to discourage such growth. I guess it did "discourage" in some areas, but certainly didn't stop it. On Sunday Hub and I spent several hours on hands, knees, and butt scooting along the rows digging up and pulling out errant weeds and large patches of stubborn crabgrass.
I thought of Oprah. I had just seen her on TV sitting in her pristine California garden waxing poetic about the spiritual bliss of gardening. Right. I also read an article where she mentioned, "with the help of a natural resource management group, we planted an acre...." Oh. The Royal "We". I think the hourly employees of that management group did the tilling, planting, weeding, maintaining. If you Google Oprah's Garden photos, they always show her looking all earthy, holding large baskets of recently harvested and picture-perfect vegetables ready to take inside for the cook to deal with.
Here's the thing....I really relate to Oprah's love of the idea of gardening. I, and she, just don't want to really do all the work-y parts. I'm going to Google "natural resource management groups" and see if I can get expert advice on harvesting without actually having to dig, weed, plant, compost, tend, stake, fence, and guard from slugs, deer, and bunnies. I'll just head out there in August with my groovy hand-woven garden basket and pile it high with colorful veggies for Hub to cook. That will be a Super Spiritual practice.
At least, that's the view from here...©
I accidentally deleted Jean's comment; here it is again!
ReplyDeleteYou are so funny. You, me and Oprah all have something in common---love the idea of gardening but not the work. At least she can afford to hire help. My newly married young neighbors are doing their first ever garden and I'm having fun watching. There little plastic greenhouse blew over in the wind and all their seedlings piled up on the ground. They did a soil test and balanced their plot with chemicals and put up a four foot high fence to keep out the many rabbits we have. I doubt they'll grow enough to share but they sure are studying the heck out of how-to-books. LOL
I have raspberries, too, and the wildlife love them but I'm glad I don't need to go near them. They are wicked thorny!
Your raspberries are thorny??? Are you sure they aren't blackberries? Mine have no thorns...do raspberries have thorns? I'm not much of a gardener-- there must be different varieties.
DeleteI have done the same thing. For those who don't blog it can happen if you move your mouse a tiny distance when you mean to click on 'publish' and you click instead on 'delete.' At least you had a copy of what I wrote in an email where I have turned off that feature. This is a good reason why I should consider turning it back on again.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother had a "kitchen garden" and my mother - and father - worked hard at the "freezer garden" and when my kids were young we had the "eat it or you don't get any" backyard garden. Now I have the "on the condo balcony herb garden". Yes, the big gardens were hard and yes, I forget to pay attention to the condo-balcony garden. But mostly I am grateful for having food! Yep, that's the main thing: we frick-fracking have food!
ReplyDeleteI think growing anything anywhere is a miracle.
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