I just got this Tweet –now that I am so trendy and interconnected with the larger universe– and it got me thinking about the garden. I’d already been sitting on the couch not paying attention to what was on the TV thinking about the garden. I have been having deep thoughts about the garden for the last few days.
The winter gardening experience was miserable. I can’t describe it any other way. I had hoped that having a winter garden would spark some appreciation for the colder segment of the year. I love being outside. I feel most alive when I am spending quality time outdoors puttering in “nature” –also known as my back yard. Alas, I can find no reason at all to be outside during winter. There is simply nothing at all to appreciate about winter. It’s just miserable. Even puttering around in “nature” can’t make me want to be outside during the winter.
There will be no future winter gardens. None. I may start some late-winter/early-spring things (like peas), but I am not fussing around outside in Texas mud in near freezing temperatures and high wind for any plant. I will occasionally pay a premium price for one organically and locally grown head of perfect† for the privilege of not having to be outside and miserable during the winter. Or, I’ll buy the clone-like stuff at the grocery store. Or do without. What I will not do is spend another winter fretting over plants.
There. I said it.
Tomorrow, I may have things to say about the spring and summer garden too. Oh, there’s going to be one, because I have carefully selected seeds from carefully selected plants which were grown in my own yard that I have to plant in order to collect seeds from those plants ad infinitum. The Great Garden Experiment will go on. I’m just not certain about the scale of the thing, and that’s just one of the many decisions about the garden that I am currently contemplating.
And all that talk the other day about not bothering with a plan and just going all carefree about the nitty-gritty details of plants and growing things? Just ignore it. I started working on The Plan 2010 last night.
Footnotes- † And by “perfect” I do mean looking like an actual fresh vegetable grown in a natural environment and not a clone-like representation of what we think broccoli should look like – as one would see in most grocery store produce departments. [↩]