I'm going to tell you a secret. I am not a gardener. I am not good at gardening and truthfully, I don't even know if I like it that much. I have known this for a while now, but finally accepted it. I am a lot of things - a mother, a wife, a runner, a vegetarian, a dog rescuer, but I cannot truthfully add gardener to that list. I would love to have an English cottage garden, full of hollyhocks, rambling roses, and lupines. I would also love to have a huge vegetable garden, with a sturdy yet pretty wood fence around it, bean tepees for my little babe to hide in, arches covered with gourds, beds brimming with strawberries, and raspberry bushes loaded with berries. In reality, I have this.
Here's the close up.
Granted, it is early April, so here in central Pennsylvania, not much would be growing here anyway. This is what I do have.
Catnip - tons and tons of monster catnip.
This lone rhubarb plant, that is trying so hard, despite being stepped on, peed on, and scratched by dogs.
In the 9 years that my husband and I have been here on this half acre, we have tried various sites for a garden. Some years were better than others, but we are never really good at it.
I know the reasons why and while some people might call them excuses, I am calling them reasons. I think "excuse" has a negative connotation and I am not feeling negative about this reality any more.
-We have a bad site - hard packed soil with lots of clay, surrounded by huge trees. We just don't have the drive to put wheelbarrows full of compost, manure, and other amendments in it. Plus building raised beds.
-We own 6 dogs. Really, I shouldn't need to list any more reasons. We would have to invest a sizeable chunk of money to build a real solid fence and we would rather spend that money on the inside of the house.
-We have a groundhog family that lives under our shed and would rather enjoy watching them than trapping them. We're always animal lovers first.
-We like to travel. We would much rather go somewhere new on the weekend than stay home in order to work in garden.
-We like to run. We do our long runs on the weekends and that can take an entire Saturday morning. Then when we get back, we are too tired to work in the garden or in July and August, it is too hot in the afternoon.
-We have so many farmer's markets and CSAs around here, that we have nearly year round access to local organic food. It would be different if we only had the grocery store food, shipped from thousands of miles away, but since we have these great local resources, we can feel good about supporting these farmers. For 7 months out of the year, there is almost a different farmer's market every day of the week and one or two go year round.
-We aren't 100% sure of our plans for the future and whether we will be staying in this home. It makes more sense to invest the money in the home than in the garden.
-We are busy. I know, everybody is. But besides working his regular full time job, my husband owns and manages several rental properties and is involved in his first house flip. That doesn't leave much extra time, which leaves all of the house and yard/garden work to me. Besides doing all of the cleaning (let me remind you of the 11 pets plus one toddler I have inside the house), and the cooking (which we try to do from scratch), and the mowing (1/2 an acre with a push mower), walking the dogs (an hour each day), and all of the other things that happen on a daily basis, I just don't have time.
I know that there are amazing and awesome homesteading Mammas out there who have their hands in the dirt and their baby in a sling on their back. I give you major props! I thought I was going to be that Mom. But I would rather take my little babe to the park or on an adventure in the woods or to the arboretum, than go weeding in the garden. In the future, as the babe gets older, as we have less dogs, if my husband's work commitments change, we might decide to go for it and invest the time and money. For now, I will happily visit the farmer's markets, with the greater variety than what I could grow, enjoying the share that we get each week from the CSA, and not feeling guilty. Our family is still eating good homemade food, made from local organic ingredients.
So there you have it. We do intend to have several containers of herbs and we might plant some fun things like pumpkins, but there won't be any stress involved. If we go away for the weekend, we won't have to worry about the garden (just whether the dogs are going to catch a groundhog while we're away). If you don't want to follow my blog anymore because you think I am just making excuses for what is one of the most important things people should be doing - growing their own food to provide for their family - I understand that. But now I'll have more time to take pretty pictures of plants and veggies that other people are growing, which I'll share with you right here! So I'd love if you stick around. Happy gardening to those with green thumbs and sturdy fences!
