7 Lessons from the Urban Gardener, Year Four
When my partner and I bought our house, one of the things I was most excited about was starting a garden. My father (who grew up on an honest-to-goodness farm) always had a vegetable plot in his backyard, my mother (and her mother) grew flowers, and my new next-door neighbours were a pair of elderly Italians whose entire backyard was given over to vegetables. I felt like I had truly arrived. We’re now going into our fourth year of gardening. The first few were veggies only; last year, we finally had the backyard landscaped and added flowers to our repertoire. Here are some things I’ve learned… 1. The weeds are faster than you think. In early April the temperature was barely above freezing, and the frost date was still more than a month away, but the weeds were already up and going. 2. Easy = good. We’ve grown tomatoes and zucchini year after year, because they take care of themselves. Stick them in, water occasionally, and get all the veggies you can eat. Carrots, on the other hand…the first year they grew stunted (but so. tasty.), while the second year they never grew at all, and this year is looking like a repeat of the second. Alas.