Sunday, May 06, 2012

To garden, or not to garden

I never thought this would actually be a question. In 20 plus years of adulthood and marriage, I have always had some kind of a vegetable garden. Some years it was smaller than others, but I always felt I had to have something. With all the space I have here, to not use a good amount of it for growing food seems like, well, a waste.

This spring, however, I am re-thinking things, at least for this year. We have a number of things that need to be done on the house. Bathroom. Kitchen cabinets and sink. Deck. Flooring. Garage. The garage will be built by professionals, but I expect I will have to put in a considerable amount of time on the other projects. This full time job thing of mine gets in the way, and despite my desire to get everything done AND have a large garden, it does not appear to be realistic. Especially when I had planned on moving the garden to a new location this year, and the ground is not even tilled yet.

Relax, I tell myself. Abide. I will still have the garlic I planted last year, and maybe some plants in containers. But do I really want to go all out planting, only to feel guilty later about not tending weeds? Next year, when my house is a lot more finished than it is this year, I'll get back into it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

6 comments:

Unknown said...

It sounds like a smart decision for this year.

webb said...

Give yourself a breat! Gardens take a lot of tending in the hottest part of the summer. With all that going on, you need a little slack this year.

Just be sure to buy local when you can.

Richard said...

You'll regret it if you don't at least plant a small one...tomatoes, cucumbers, etc....things you use a lot of.

R.Powers said...

I 've scaled back from expansive, spread all over creation gardening and taken a page from all these clever urban farmers. There 's some neat stuff going on in small spaces.
I think your reasoning is sound though.

barefoot gardener said...

I'm wondering the same thing this year.... I will miss my garden if I don't, but feel guilty if I do and can't take care of it.

Either way, we are gardeners, and there is always next year! lol

Deb said...

I think maybe you're right Richard. Two 4x8 beds, a few tomatoes, some greens. Plus I'm determined to get my lingonberry patch started this year. I just need to keep it manageable.