early June
July
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September
Creative Week Installment 3
There are a lot of things in life I thought I would never do or be interested in. Gardening is one. We had previously had some high altitude planting trials during our time in CO, but alas either hail or vacation got the best of our potted attempts. We decided perhaps gardening wasn't for us.
A few moves and a surprising number of years later, it was now time to try again. Although I enjoy all that a garden has to offer, I still am not convinced I have the love and attention an organic garden needs - thank god for H. It became a partnership of sorts. I started by taking a Urban Gardening class at our favorite local garden center. I had no idea I had it in me to do such a thing, but it was one of the most fun things I have done since I moved here. The people teaching were great, the students were great, and I left invigorated to share all of the information with H so he could successfully manage the garden. Then when we returned from Sweden in the midst of our after-vacation blues, we had something to look forward to the rest of the summer. The garden became H's daily ritual and he tended it well. It became one of the highlights of the day to receive his garden progress reports, and a real treat the first time he pulled something we could actually eat out of it!
We are a little 'out there' I guess to some people in our pleasantly evolving neighborhood. 'Those crazy people who moved here from California'. A rain barrel and garden right smack dab in plain view. Placing the garden and the rain barrel where they are was not about beating everyone over the head with how great our idea was, it was merely the sunniest and best spot on our property for a garden. But the cool thing is, it has created a lot of interest locally in what we are doing and by just living who we are and not trying to be anything else, we know we have made an impact. I know this because when I'm out with the push mower I get comments like "you folks are really 'green' aren't you? that's great!" And H has people ask him questions when he is out tending his flock. H has also seen people walk right off the sidewalk over to our rain barrel to check it out in action. For a first attempt it turned out pretty nice. At times during the summer almost everything we ate for dinner was out of our garden, and with the bumper crop of tomatoes we have going, these delicious dinners continue. We are simply doing the things we had hoped to do when we moved here, and slowly, one step at a time it is happening.
Self-sustained success tastes awfully good!
