Me in the Garden 
I didn’t know I wanted a garden. I never had one even though I grew up in the middle of 148 acres – the remains of what had been a family farm. It was never farmed when I lived there so really, it was just a big piece of land. My father’s sister, Dorothy (who I never knew because she died at 40 – she was a blue baby which they don’t have anymore but used to be deadly before they cured it…) …so, Dorothy had a walled in flower garden. By the time I remember it, she was already gone and it was already overgrown. But it still had a 10 foot, sheer rocky embankment covered in bunches of pink phlox and lots of daffodils and vinca covered the ground everywhere.
I was a fat, inactive little kid but I remember spending a lot of daydreaming time on that garden. I imagined myself clearing out all the underbrush and replanting with every beautiful flower I could find. But, weighing 115 by the time I was 7 which is what – double what’s normal? - it always felt like too much work. I also used to dream that I completely re-did the garden -- not eating the entire time and losing weight wildly so that I was willowy thin and gorgeous. I would imagine myself in my beautifully manicured garden, sitting in front of an easel painting the picturesque flowers I had grown. I never did that either. I have not artistic ability whatsoever and consider myself doing very well to be able to write my name.
Those gardening daydreams took place about 40 years ago. I had completely forgotten that I’d ever wanted a garden. I moved to Manhattan. Green was the color of the ferns in the bouquet of flowers you could buy. Barry and I bought our house outside the city in July of 2000. From the moment we saw it I started talking garden. We’d go up to the house on weekends even before we had closed and I started scratching around in the hard clay in the back, planting peppers and sun flowers, neither of which survived.
Eight years later the hill is still hard to garden because it’s all clay and rock. But we keep adding compost and topsoil and sand and mulch and every year it’s getting better and better. I had been sticking mostly to herbs because we have deer so vegetables didn’t seem like an option. Then Barry’s sister, Jan, told him about Liquid Fence – this foul smelling product that keeps deer away. I was skeptical but tried it last year and it worked! The deer got a few things (…like everything from the cabbage family – broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. That’s like fries and a chocolate shake to them.) We also got a water scare-crow and some plug in electric thing that is supposed to make some noise to keep rabbits and woodchucks away. I lost a few pumpkins last year and a couple zucchini. They ate some of my tall summer pink a white meadow phlox. That’s all I can remember….but they never touched the tomatoes, beans or butternut squash.
So this year, inspired by a book I’ve just read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s a wonderful book and has just come out in trade paperback. The author and her family decided to go for one year eating only locally produced food. She did her own huge garden and raised turkeys. The purpose of eating locally is to reduce the carbon footprint and avoid the toxic poisons they put in conventionally grown produce as well as avoiding the cruelty involved in factory raised meats. She makes really interesting points about how much distance there is between the average American and the food we eat. Most of us never think about how our food was grown or raised but our ancestors all had an intimate and detailed relationship with their food. The book is great. She says it better.
It is appalling the ills we have so that agribusiness can make more money (while giving less and less of it to the farmers who actually do the work.) I have little doubt that a huge number of modern ills are caused by our diet. I do think that our food industry is, in general, corrupt and is poisoning us on a daily basis. I wonder if I would feel and/or look physically different if I stopped eating anything except for fresh, locally grown food? I’m seriously thinking about trying it. Barry is willing. I can’t even undertake to do it 100% because I have a book to promote and expect this to be a busy summer. But I’m thinking of trying to at least get to 50/50 or so. What do you think?
I’ve planted the biggest garden I’ve ever have but, since we are only here a couple days a week, there is a limit to how much I can plant and sometimes it doesn’t get watered enough etc….so we’ll have to find local organic farms and do things like can and dehydrate and freeze. I love that idea. The very thought of a closet filled with food I somehow preserved is thrilling to me. I’m always overstocking my small freezer at the bottom of my refrigerator. (Problem is, I freeze it but then don’t really eat it. I’d rather just freeze more.) But last year I had 2 zucchini plants which produce BUCKETS of zucchini in case you don’t know. I made this wonderful Zucchini soup where I just cooked the chopped zucchini in (homemade, organic) chicken stock. Then when the zucchini is soft you puree it, adding fresh dill. Serve with parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top. Wow, was it good. And, as I mentioned I had BUCKETS of zucchini and to prove that I haven’t completely forgotten the point of the story I had lots of soup to freeze. That I did eat and it’s wonderful. Low calorie but tastes fattening. Really easy because all I had to do was thaw it. So maybe this whole Barbara Kingsolver plan can work. I’m making no promises here – I’m just telling you that I’m thinking about it.
This is what I’ve planted so far – only a few plants of each: Tomatoes – Plum, heirloom, grape Jalapeno peppers Zucchini Peas Lima Beans (I’ve never even seen them in plant form) Swiss chard Okra (another first) Eggplant – purple and pink Sweet yellow banana peppers Habanera peppers Hot Cherry Peppers Caribbean hot pepper Bell peppers Cayenne pepper Yellow Squash Acorn squash Dumpling squash Pumpkins Kohlrabi Spinach Chinese cabbage String beans – green and yellow That’s what’s outside. I also have a deck farm. Let me explain. We have two big gardening challenges: deer and wildlife eating the garden is one and other is the fact that we are only here a couple days a week so can’t always water when things need it. So I have a back up garden on my front deck – which is a 2nd story deck. On it I have 15 self watering garden containers. This year in the deck farm I have a grape tomato and 2 plum tomatoes, dill and parsley, sweet peppers, basil, lettuce – three containers which is more than I meant to but somehow I planted lettuce instead of string beans! – Two bins of potatoes, yellow squash, and mustard greens. The mustard greens are very exciting. They are from my friend Anna May who you will be getting to know very well on this page. She is an organic gardener and environmentalist. She’s also one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Anyway…that’s a long story and I’ll tell it elsewhere. Suffice it to say that I met her on my cat, Beastly’s website, have corresponded via email for 9 years and just went to Canada to meet her this past weekend. She made a salad from early greens picked in her greenhouse. One reddish green leaf tasted exactly like the best mustard you could imagine! And it’s basically lettuce! Can you imagine how that will taste on a ham sandwich? |
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