Thursday, June 21, 2012

A Modest Harvest

"If you have a garden and you like food, then it is mad not to grow your own."  -Monty Don

I like Monty Don's garden writing quite a bit.  But, man, that kinda stings, Monty.  Am I mad?  I mean I like food as much as the next guy (okay, the extra weight around my mid-section will testify that I might like it a little more than the next guy) but I prefer to grow things that aren't very edible.  Like Japanese maples.

This is the produce aisle in my paved side yard.  From left to right: an espaliered Fuji apple tree,
Early Girl tomatoes, Eversweet strawberries, Kentucky Colonel mint, and  zucchini.  
 Though I have been trying.  A little bit.  I bought some new wine barrels this year and cleaned out some of my unused pots to grow vegetables in this summer.  I knew going in that my output wouldn't be as high as it would have been if I had devoted actual earth space to this endeavor but I was okay with that because we don't eat a lot of vegetables anyway.  
With that in mind, I picked these last night:

A few strawberries and some pole beans - some Italian variety I guess.

Yes, that is just five smallish strawberries and about a dozen pole beans.  Not enough to make a meal appetizer for myself let alone a family of three, but it was still met with some excitement when I brought them in. 

My daughter ate all but one of the strawberries I picked.  

Maybe someday more of my yard will be devoted to things we can eat but for now we're enjoying the modest harvest of this year and feeling a little less "mad" in the process. 

4 comments:

  1. My mom had a huge garden when I was little that provided almost all the veggies for our family of 5 all year long. It was great, partly to know what "real" fruit and vegetables taste like (although that's also been a curse in a way), but it was a lot of work. Daily work (esp. in a dry climate). All summer long. With grasshoppers. All to say, there's nothing wrong with modest...

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  2. Lucky your sweet girl got the berries and not the birds! They look delicious.

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  3. Chad, Count me among the mad. The only food in my garden are herbs growing by the kitchen door and wild berries of various kinds growing wherever they can gain a foothold (which is just about everyplace that I haven't turned into a flower bed!). I love fresh, local, organic food; but I can get a much greater variety and do far more good by supporting local farmers than by trying to grow my own. -Jean

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  4. I grow all my veggies in pots since I refuse to give up flower garden space for them. This year I have a tomato, purple carrots, ground cherries, and sweet potatoes. I also grow blackberries but the birds always eat them first. Gardening doesn't have to just be about veggies.

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