Thought for the Day

Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden.  -- Orson Scott Card

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Beginnings (Again)

I've been wondering what it was going to take to wake me from my gardening coma. Mild weather with blue skies and whole stretches of days without rain wasn't enough to do it. The cats luring me out to play didn't do it. And god knows, the burgeoning weed population hasn't done it either. But yesterday a large envelope arrived in the mail--a promotional package from Renee's Garden--and today it did the trick.

The package announced Renee's new seed varieties for 2009, including a couple of beautiful new sweet peas ("Zinfandel" and "Painted Lady"), a honey-scented alyssum ("Summer Peaches"), and two lettuce mixes ("Asian Baby Leaf" and "Ruby & Emerald Duet"). There's more--those were just what caught my eye at first glance. And to entice me further the package contained a complementary pack of the Asian Baby Leaf seed mix.

Renee's Garden is my favorite seed company. Their seeds are reliable germinators and they provide so much more information on their seed packets than most other seed companies. One thing in particular that I love is that they actually provide detailed information about how to harvest--exactly when to cut, how much to cut, and how to get a second growth. Sometimes they even provide information about how to cook the veggies. And if you're not a fan of their pretty seed packet illustrations, you can always go their web site to check out the real-life photos of each variety.

So with my new packet of Renee's Garden seeds in hand, I stumbled bleary-eyed out to the garden today, freshened up a couple of containers with an addition of new compost, and sprinkled Asian Baby Leaf seed mix over the top. Come early spring, these will make easy salad pickings right outside my back door. And while I was at it, I also planted another container with some of the sweet pea seeds from my last year's crop.

It wasn't much of a dent in all the gardening that needs to be done, and I'm not sure the funk I've been in is entirely lifted. But I defy anyone to plant seeds without feeling just a little bit better.

They Should Have Just Asked a Gardener

The LA Times has an article today about a study done at Kansas State University showing that yes, gardening can be strenuous enough to count as a moderate workout and to help keep people, particular seniors, fit.

I'm all for scientific research, but this seems like another one of those cases where a study was done to prove something that should be fairly obvious. Anyone who's ever raked a lawn, dug holes for planting, or pulled a significant amount of weeds can tell you that of course regular gardening activities are equivalent to a workout. While not every activity will get your heart rate up enough to count as a cardio activity, some, such as vigorous raking, will. Add to that the bending and reaching that comes with pruning, planting, and weeding, and you've got a pretty good all-over routine.

For those who need quantifiable proof of things, I hope this study, published in HortTechnology, will put the issue to rest. But honestly, I think it could have been settled just as conclusively by picking up a shovel.

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Happy New Year! Time to Have Some Fun Again!

It's a new year and time to turn my attention back to both my garden and this blog. It's shameful the way I've been neglecting both in the past couple months but work and life have conspired to steal my time and drain my energy. I've realized though that there's another, even bigger reason why I've haven't been spending time either gardening or blogging: Neither has seemed very fun lately. And that is a shame, because both have given me a lot of pleasure in the past.

So as I was thinking about new year's resolutions and goals for 2009, it occurred to me that the best resolution I could make is to find the fun again--to make a point of enjoying my time in the garden and blogging about it. 2008 was for me personally and perhaps for the world at large somewhat of a soul-sucking experience. I'm ready for a fresh start and more than ready for some fun.

Happy new year and best wishes for my fellow gardeners, bloggers, and readers in 2009!

Let's Say Good-Bye to the First Lawn

Let's hope President-Elect Obama adds this to his First Hundred Days To-Do List:


This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

Another Change of Season

Today's the day when when we have the chance to change the season with no help at all from nature. The calendar may say it's autumn, but it feels more like the end of a long, dark winter. Be your own equinox. Please, vote.

Here Comes the Rain

We're having the first real storm in quite a while, and while I'm happy to be relieved of watering duties for the next few days, all I can think about is all the gardening tasks I haven't finished.

In the front yard, I still have quite a bit of weeding left to do, as well as laying down new mulch. The huge camellia at the side of the house still badly needs pruning. I was hoping to wimp out and hire someone to do that, but now I feel the need to be a frugal gardener, so I'll have to tackle that myself.

In the back yard, well ... oh ... my ... god! Where to start? More weeding, more mulch-laying. I need to move a rosa rugosa and a Mexican Limelights salvia, and I still need to get a few other plants I bought a while back in the ground. I've got bulbs to put in as well. Plus pruning the passion flower and jasmine vines, and relocating the clematis.

Unlike in other regions, in my Zone 9/10 garden there is no such thing as putting the garden to bed for the winter. Gardening is a year-round thing here, but I confess that I don't much enjoy it in the cold and wet. So I need to at least get things cleaned up and prepped for a bit of gardener goof-off time so that I don't have to face an even bigger mess in the spring.

From the way I'm grousing about my to-do list, you'd think I had a manor estate to look after instead of just a tiny city lot. But it's feeling a bit daunting right now because I never seem to be able to get my vision of what my garden could be to match what I'm actually able to accomplish. As small as my garden is, it could look terrific if I can ever get the vision to be borne out in leaf and flower. Eventually, I think I will. But the waiting is terrible and humbling and frustrating.

So while I wait out the rain, I make more plans and perfect the vision. The grunt work will have to happen another day.

Photo credit: FreeFoto.com