For the Love of Dirt: VEGGING IT

Sunday, August 18, 2019

VEGGING IT

"Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade..." -Rudyard Kipling

Newest project this weekend was to try putting in a veggie garden for fall. I saw it done on a garden show. That looks like fun, I thought. Always game for back breaking work...some digging and delving....fresh lettuce at my door The call of the wild. Of the garden. Vegging it. Organic. Very "in".

A garden is kind of like changing cushion covers. Good for a season. Now do something different. And if it doesn't work out, just turn it under, so the garden show said.

So I nominated my husband to dig out the hill. The roses especially. They had to be moved. Then he had to turn over the sod and weed. Meanwhile, I started ripping out old flowers in pots down below on the patio.

Transplanting. Pruning the wilted. Roses rebound quickly.

Adding mulch from composts. Trimming roots.Dirt. Worms. Bugs. All that sort of stuff. So far the garden show was right........one with the earth. Vegging it, and all that sort of thing was so far so good.

Made a mess.......

Saved four geraniums to overwinter in the house.
( The garden experts made it look exciting. I believe the host had long fingernails, and classical music on in the background. She wore a white jumpsuit. A spotless white jumpsuit.)

Only a few dianthus and some geraniums remained. Bees hummed around, and in the clover , and roses, which have bloomed since May.

I thinned out strawberries, growing in recycled kitchen sinks. I moved some of the strawberries to troughs on the hill, for next year.

Crammed as many geraniums into the yellow wheelbarrow to grow till October. I never use it to haul stuff. I just use it as a planter. I saw THAT on a garden show once.

Saved one large pot of Cosmos. For now. It's slowly becoming stick-like as it winds down to the end of summer.

I Gathered Carrots, Onions, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Broccoli, Turnips....

3$ for a six pack. The garden show said to show abandon. So I got lettuce. Lots of Lettuce.

Planted seedlings on the hill in dark loam. Straight furrows. Sort of.

Gathered pots around the back door. Pots of roses and empty pots now chock full of lettuce.

Crowded with salad greens of all types.

Close to the door. On the garden show they made it look easy. Happy professional people,dressed in crisp linen, stepping outside to sniff the air, claiming it to be a glorious day. And waving at the pots of lettuce.

Then snip, snip, snip, they went at the lettuce. And once more proclaimed what a wonderful thing it is having a salad within arm's reach.....They made it look so easy. So natural. No mud. No mess. No pigeons dive-bombing you.....