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Thursday, September 24, 2015

Garden fatigue

It's confession time, folks. I'm tired of my garden this year! I came across this picture of my garden from years ago and laughed.

There's a lush grouping of pole beans on the back left, stout silver-green broccoli plants in front of that, tall tomatoes on the right, and zinnias in a colorful pompon border between the wooden garden box and the row of large rocks.

Here's that zinnia border:



And a look inside the box, with kids to show the scale of the plants (perhaps that's why she's holding a stick?):



A drip line? Holy cow! I'd forgotten my garden ever had that.


Look at my garden today:


Granted, this shot is September and the others are July, but come on! My garden path has turned to garden apathy. The pole bean frame is bare because so few seeds below it sprouted this summer that I didn't bother attaching strings for them to climb. Overgrown, woody sage plants have all but obscured the large rock border, which once was distinct from the lawn it abuts (if we can call it a lawn anymore!). The light green hose -- the only source of water here --  is never put away. Weeds are everywhere. Even the fence looks defeated.

The first picture is from 2006, the first year we had a garden at this home. We cleared the area and made the boxes that spring. Clearly, I tended the garden better then! I think I laugh at the comparison because really, I am confused. I don't get it. I was in the throes of raising little kids then. They are older and more self-sufficient now, which should leave me with MORE time for gardening, not less. Right? I don't get it.

There's a season for everything, they say. If memory serves, the mom/gardener of 2006 felt a bit frazzled, too, but I laugh with new assurance that I don't need to knock myself out on the gardening front. Bedraggled September gardens still yield rewards.


But not too much, because that would be crazy.

3 comments:

sonia said...

You still have way more produce than I did this year. Also, I've been neglecting my flower beds for so long that they finally went completely haywire and had to be gutted in August. And by gutted I mean weeded because weeds (sumac, ivy, smartweed, jewelweed, you name it) took over everything! It took a month to get it to a manageable place. On the flip side my daughter now thinks the yard looks bare where before it was so "lush." So I guess it's all how you see it. I'm sure you'll get your mojo back again. Even if it's not until next Spring!

David said...

Jennifer, I really love to see other gardens that look like mine. It's been a tough year in Nebraska for weed control We just had another four inches of rain spanning the last two days and it's still predicted to rain through the night. I haven't checked the rain gauge since this morning so the count could be higher than 4 inches by now. My garden has a very sticky soil when wet and will dry rock hard if worked while the least bit wet. So when it stops raining, it will be another three days before I can really do any thing there. You know how much weed growth can happen in just one week of inattention.

Have a great day in the garden.

daisy g said...

What a lovely combination of food and flowers. Hope you enjoy some goodies before the cooler weather hits. ;0D