Every Year, a Different Design.

Sometimes, I admit, I act like a sloth -- mostly, I blame the reading... the passive nature of the reading.  And there's no denying, I am a procrastinator. (I hope family accepts birthday cards, written but never mailed, months late... )

But my garden:  the timing only gets better each year.

I used to take pictures. I was so impressed, not by myself or my work so much, but by the transformation: the church gifts me a plot of dirt, cost free w/just a promise to tithe the first 10 percent of my garden proceeds back to the church to help feed the needy and those unable to garden themselves. Then, a few hours work, the gift of rain and sunshine: next thing you know, you've got a whole 'nother world out there.

The year I first grew my own broccoli... then, even better, broccolini... Snip, snip, fresh greens through the summer.

I don't do fancy anymore.
 It's too easy to buy from the Hmong farmers, who truck their produce in from Menomonie, Bloomer or Eau Claire into the Rice Lake farmers market Saturday morning. Nothing fancy about that market either, which is good, as the prices remain dirt cheap, pretty much. Flowers too.

But I do like to put in a crop of Roma tomatoes, as they keep well and are known as sauce tomatoes. And my big taste discovery is Thai Basil, I can't get enough of the flavor. You can freeze it, and add it to everything, all winter long...

I never have much luck with garlic -- the bulbs grow, and multiply, but they end up being so small. Likely it's because we get the plots assigned every spring, it is tilled and re-assigned, and there's no opportunity to let it winter over and grow larger. STill, I'm putting it in again this year, as I like the fresh taste...

They say it will rain tonight, or tomorrow and Monday, which is traditional for Memorial Days in these parts, it seems.

So, no photos, friends,
and I'm just putting down the black plastic today, and sowing some peas and beans (it's not smart to put the tomatoes in until June 1st, at least, in these parts; even with no freeze, they don't grow much in the cold ground...) But it's good to pull the tools and stakes out of storage, and I have been religiously watering my starter plants inside the garage I rent, rotating the spinach and lettuce, and basil in the windows, and pulling in the tomato pots when it gets too nippy at night.

But if you know that feeling of the beginning days of a garden,
you know the natural feeling of putting in the work, and eventually, reaping what you have sowed.  No guarantees, and I do spray some nasty-smelling deer repellant (too ensconced in a wide-open farm field to worry about rabbits or smaller critters, usually...) to protect my plants when they are small, but pretty much, the reward is worth the effort.