Week Two

So you think you want to garden. You have looked at other yards and you like the beauty of what you see. Or this year you want to try your hand at growing your own tomatoes or green beans or whatever it is that you like to eat fresh. Farmer's Markets are great. Yet nothing beats going out in your own yard and picking something fresh. Now what? Where should one begin?

Back in 1979 I had my first real garden. With my husband in the tractor with the plow hooked behind it we started our first garden. Under my direction my he plowed up a spot in our side yard. Later I found out, years before the spot had been the farm dumping ground. That first year the vegetable part of the garden turned out surprisingly well. The spot I planted to wild flowers became an unrecognizable tangle of weeds and perhaps a wild flower or two. By midsummer I found myself crying over the mess I had created. I had followed the package direction of sowing the seeds randomly over the ground. Now maybe that method works for some but for this new comer to the world of gardening it was an unqualified failure. The next year I had success in starting a wild flower bed by planting the seeds in rows. With rows clearly defined, I was able to pull the weeds even if I could not differentiate between weeds and flower plants. That first year the garden was a bit structured. By the next year it was the wild flower bed I pictured in my mind. Three years to lovely.