Marriage & Compromise

David's been patient with me these last four years. I can get a little too ambitious with garden plans ("Let's grow 17 different types of yellow tomatoes and have a huge tasting contest with the neighbors!"), which is fine (and, he admits, exciting to a degree), but I don't have the organizational skills to implement consistently my grandiose plans.

So we'll have the 17 tomato plants, but I'll lose all the little stick label-things marking the pots, and we have to plant them willy-nilly and guess at their names. Or we'll have nine bean plants but I'll get occupied and forget to cook them for a week and they'll have to be thrown out. Or we'll plant them so close that everything gets contaminated with some claustrophobic mold.

I also like to give away our bounty to friends, but he's the one weeding and picking suckers and mowing, mostly, so he gets the grunt work and -- because I am the one handing out the results or cooking them -- I get more of the glory.

I rarely admit my (best-laid) plans gang aft algey, but he knows he's right.

But here, publicly, on this here blog, I will capitulate to his sober and sensible plans, forswearing my intractable imagination, and will choose fewer varieties, work with more precision and attention, and plant the seedlings a little farther apart.

But...um, I'll claim a little spot down in the way-back-yard for my "experimental garden."

Signed, digitally,
Camille Napier Bernstein
(stubborn to the last)

Back from the Compost Heap

One of my favorite photos

So wait, you're telling me that we haven't updated our blog in nearly a year? And that we didn't make one crummy posting during ALL of last year's garden.
"That's unacceptable!"

Well, I agree. I will say that we DID have a garden last year, though it did not receive the love and attention that past gardens had enjoyed. I blame Virginia and a protracted job search. One of the distractions was significantly more enjoyable than the other. We did, however, cultivate a garden in the summer of 2008, and I am willing to call it a moderate success. Our tomatoes thrived, our garlic was weak, and everything else in between did pretty OK. I'll take it!

Camille and I (and Virginia, of course) are back, searching through piles of organic seed catalogs, trying to figure out what we want. I am determined, after years of feeble protest, to push my agenda for a smaller, more orderly garden, this year. Frankly, even without VA, Camille and I have been overwhelmed by gardens past. Once the heat hits, there's just too much to do, and a lot of the doing never gets done. As a result, the zucchinis aren't harvested on time (they turn woody), the carrots aren't thinned (creating strange mutations due to lack of nutrients), and tomato suckers aren't pinched off (which leads to more tomatoes...that are lacking in serious glucose, or whatever). So this year, with four gardens under our belt, I say...downsize. A little.

We really are excited this year though. Life won't be so crazy, and Virginia will be able to toddle around, digging up worms and eating fresh fruits. It's going to be GREAT. I am most looking forward to growing tomatoes and eggplant (so pretty) and peppers for Camille. I am also excited to plant a few flower varieties, but that's mostly so I can take photos of them.

Okay, we're back!