Gardening Dilemma

This year I have decided to skip planting a vegetable garden. By this time, mid-February, I would normally be moving my seedlings out of the back bedroom, where they have been under a grow light since December, and into the greenhouse in the back yard. But the garden was so bountiful last year, all the way into late October, that I am weary from harvesting, watering, fertilizing, and then trying to find a home for my overage. I gave so many peppers away last year, my neighbors began to ran inside when they saw me coming with a grocery sack in my hands. I still have frozen tomatoes in the freezer, Ziplocks full of frozen chopped peppers, and jars of canned peppers and salsa in the pantry. Last year, so many of my seedlings made plants that I took the extras to the feed store. The owner sold them in all within a week and gave me free bird seed and fertilizer in exchange. So this year, I need a break. However, it's kind of bothering me.

In six more weeks, we will be gone on our long-anticipated river cruise up the Danube. I don't want to leave a ready-to-harvest garden for the pet-sitter. And it will be one less thing for me to worry over on our vacation. Instead of wondering if there's been rain or if the weather has turned off hot, or if the auto watering system is still functioning, I can walk the streets of Vienna carefree. Last year while we were in Italy we had some of the hottest weather of the summer in Texas. It was over 100 several days, and when that happens, our west-facing backyard becomes a sauna. I think I can survive one year without a garden.

Besides, the garden also puts a damper on us heading down to the coast house whenever we want. Usually I feel compelled to rush back home after two or three days to check on the garden, to make sure some bug infestation hasn't begun, or that the wind hasn't blown over, or some other disaster hasn't befallen my plants. A garden can really be a pain in the neck to maintain.

But what fun to watch okra seeds sprout and push through the soil, or to spray each delicate tomato blossom in the quiet, dewy morning to help set fruit, and coming inside with a basket full of beans, peas, okra, peppers, and tomatoes really gives my mood a lift. We hardly need any store-bought vegetables when my garden is coming in. Does anything taste better than really fresh vegetables you picked just that morning.

Inevitably, though, no matter how few plants you grow, there comes a time when the harvest overpowers you, when two people cannot possibly eat all the bounty, and there you go, bagging up your overage, trying to find someone willing to do the clean-up required on homegrown produce. Maybe the first time or two, they're appreciative, but all my neighbors are just like us, couples with no kids. We have one bachelor who lives behind us. He never wants more than a handful of any one thing, and by the time I'm in give-away mode I want to get rid of sacks full.

Weeds are growing in my garden, big tall thistles that seem to be Round-up resistant. I pulled up a few this morning, and had to control the urge to toss in a handful of beans seeds. While I was weeding, I found an overlooked onion from the Fall and brought that inside to wash. I have some seed onions left from last year still. Onions are all but bulletproof. I could maybe just stick a few of them in the garden and forget them -- they will grow despite neglect.

It's going to be hard on me not to have a garden this year. I can tell already. I'm already wondering which boring tomato varieties the local garden center will have this year -- nothing like the heirloom varieties I nurse along on my heat mats in the back bedroom. It would be a last resort to buy plants from the garden center, but I might not be able to stand the gloom of looking out onto an empty garden all spring and summer. It's just the 21st of February. Maybe it's not too late!!!

Onward....