Sacrifices
Apr. 11th, 2005 08:16![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI'm not doing a garden this year.
If I had it running smoothly -- if I had a setup which gave me healthy seedlings with little effort, if I had actually put the plot to bed last fall and all I needed to do was dig holes and spray nematodes to keep the earwigs off, if I didn't know the watering system was going to be a bear after starting to clog from minerals last summer and then sitting all winter, if there weren't severe nutrient deficiencies which I haven't managed to correct... then I might be able to do it this year. As it stands, I don't have time to sleep, let alone fight with soil that can't keep nitrogen and seedling trays which seem to come up with a new seedling disease every year.
It means a lot to me. Most of you know how much that veggie garden means to me... it's a large part of how I relax, how I challenge myself, and it lets me connect with the earth and plants in such a way that I chose a plant discipline for my career. I get depressed when it doesn't do well, energized when it does, and I'm always thinking of new ways to improve things. Oh, and I like eating the results.
I may still do a few tomatoes, if Bruce has any transplants to offer, and I have alliums already in the ground... I have a few pepper sprouts which haven't died yet (and might make it) and a huge sweet potato which I could probably break sprouts off of and stick in the bed. I won't be doing any real soil prep, though, and I certainly won't be using the vast majority of the beds... No beans, no squash, no cukes, no okra, no basil, no peanuts, no sunflowers, no corn. Okay, maybe beans or corn if I get a little more time later this summer, but only because they're pretty short crops whose seeds you just stick in the ground, water, and ignore. But if I get a summer job, I may not have time.
This is a really hard choice for me to make, and it hurts. There will be future years, I know that... but somehow, that doesn't really help right now.
If I had it running smoothly -- if I had a setup which gave me healthy seedlings with little effort, if I had actually put the plot to bed last fall and all I needed to do was dig holes and spray nematodes to keep the earwigs off, if I didn't know the watering system was going to be a bear after starting to clog from minerals last summer and then sitting all winter, if there weren't severe nutrient deficiencies which I haven't managed to correct... then I might be able to do it this year. As it stands, I don't have time to sleep, let alone fight with soil that can't keep nitrogen and seedling trays which seem to come up with a new seedling disease every year.
It means a lot to me. Most of you know how much that veggie garden means to me... it's a large part of how I relax, how I challenge myself, and it lets me connect with the earth and plants in such a way that I chose a plant discipline for my career. I get depressed when it doesn't do well, energized when it does, and I'm always thinking of new ways to improve things. Oh, and I like eating the results.
I may still do a few tomatoes, if Bruce has any transplants to offer, and I have alliums already in the ground... I have a few pepper sprouts which haven't died yet (and might make it) and a huge sweet potato which I could probably break sprouts off of and stick in the bed. I won't be doing any real soil prep, though, and I certainly won't be using the vast majority of the beds... No beans, no squash, no cukes, no okra, no basil, no peanuts, no sunflowers, no corn. Okay, maybe beans or corn if I get a little more time later this summer, but only because they're pretty short crops whose seeds you just stick in the ground, water, and ignore. But if I get a summer job, I may not have time.
This is a really hard choice for me to make, and it hurts. There will be future years, I know that... but somehow, that doesn't really help right now.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 16:51 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 17:52 (UTC)Maybe you can get help this fall/winter in fixing the bits that need fixing for next spring.
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Date: 2005-04-12 01:37 (UTC)Now, you could look at this in the current year as the opportunity to play a summer game of throw-it-out-there-and-see-if-it-lives. Nothing is ever wasted (though I wouldn't play the game with rare heirloom seeds, even if they'd be more likely to succeed :) Cultivate as you have the will, time, and energy, and know that the soil will continue to develop and thrive without your direct attention. You're letting those plots like fallow while you tend to the ones in your head. Being a student is tough!