Friday, April 9, 2010

Reneges

It sounds crazy, perhaps, but I think this year's garden will be easier to manage. How do I figure? One thing is Virginia is so helpful and interested in gardening. She may not plant seeds in perfect rows, but she doesn't annihilate the garden when she digs around. She asks, "Mama, can I dig here?" She loves using her garden tools and giving the plants drinks with her Wonder Pets watering can.

Another thing is her swing set. David and some friends are coming by tomorrow to build it. We've figuratively built it up so much getting Virginia ready for spring and Henry that it can't but disappoint us all. Nah, she'll love it. I just hope David can get it done before rain or a surprise arrival by Hank the Tank makes it a June project.

But back to the garden. David's post below is well-intentioned but misinformed. I don't remember agreeing to so many reductions. We are simplifying the process by buying most of our seedlings, but the variety is still a priority for me. Okay, so maybe we are reducing the number of tomato plants, but Virginia and I have already planted swiss chard, arugula, scallions, parsnips, and carrots. She and David put in lettuce, too.

Henry -- in my fantasies -- will be easy, sleeping under an umbrella while VA's swinging and we are working on staking pole beans. I also fantasize about maternity leave: three days home each week to work on house projects (what?? a clean house again???) and yard work.

We'll see, we'll see.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Return of the Gardeners

Another year, another blog post.

In less than a month, we'll add a Henry to the list of Lincoln Street Bernsteins, but for now it's just David, Camille, and Virginia...and we're doing some gardening. Last year's garden was a big disappointment--we never quite mustered the energy to prune or trim or fertilize or even water. The plants took over, the tomatoes contracted some horrible blight, and we failed to harvest a good half of the vegetables that grew. After a certain point, we just sort of...gave up. There was just too much going on with Virginia and... uh, there was something else, right? No? That was it? We're blaming the whole thing on Virginia? Okay, there it is: last year's miserable garden was all Virginia's fault. Well, that feels much better!

The plan with this year's garden is to scale down our ambitions. We're going to do a couple of things well, and that's it. The first step is to abandoned our grow lights. We may grow some vegetables from seed, but only if they can be planted directly in the ground. It's just too darn hard to care for the seedlings on a daily basis, and three out of four days just doesn't do it--too many plants die. Instead of the absurd number of tomato plants we had last year and the year before (up into the 20's, I think), we are going to have twelve. That way suckers can be picked, the plants won't be competing for sunlight, and watering won't take half an hour. We'll do beans, but fewer. Cucumber, but fewer. Squash, but fewer. Everything, but fewer! I feel lighter just saying it.

The garlic, planted last fall, is already on the loose, sprouting four new leaves (??) in the past two weeks. Between those rows, Virginia and I planted lettuce and mixed baby greens. So yes, the gardeners have returned, though whether we're triumphant is of yet to be determined.