Gardening is Not for Sissies!

Gardening.  That term seems to invoke the image of peaceful tranquility and beauty.  That is – if you have never actually had a garden. 

I started my first this year.  I didn’t go small either; I went into it with a bang!  I bought a book, I purchased my seeds.  And oh!  The money spent on tools!  On top of that, I had to pay someone to come out and tear up my beautiful yard, in order to put my garden together.  Obviously, a garden does not save you money, at least not for your first year (or probably not for many years after, either). 

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After putting in so much money, I felt very motivated to have a successful garden; after all, I would like to get some return on my investment.  So I set to work.  First, I had to pull out the stubborn clumps of grass that wanted to keep on living in my garden beds.  Wow, that was quite a chore, especially with the size of my garden, and it seems as if I didn’t get it all, because it just keeps coming back!  Agh! 

Next, I got to put seeds in the beds.  Just FYI:  The seed packets give very annoying instructions!  They will tell you to plant one seed every 2’’ or so, and then it says that you should go back later and “thin” them.  Basically, they want you to tear up perfectly good plants and either discard them or relocate them.  Well, why, I ask, do you put them so close together in the first place, if you are just going to have to go back and move them later on?  Crazy, right? 

After planting your seeds, you have to water them.  With the sun beating down, and the rain not seeming to want to come for nearly two weeks this spring, I was left to water them myself every day.  At first, I was filling my watering can and carrying it back and forth many, many times, in order to get them all watered.  Yeah, that didn’t last long!  So, it was back to the store for hoses, a nozzle, and a container for my hoses.  Sigh.  More money gone down the drain (no pun intended).

As of now, my watermelons and pumpkins have refused to make a showing, my corn has been stubbornly ignoring me, and my cucumbers haven’t done a darn thing!  My silver lining though, is that my bush beans and my tomatoes are dong exceptionally well.  Although, I don’t know if I can claim much for those tomatoes, because I bought them from the store already started.

After all of that work, I am hoping that the next few weeks will be a little easier.   For all of you out there who are contemplating starting a garden, I beg you to start small!  You will be glad you did.  If you do it like me, you will be trapped, and you will have to finish what you started, what with all the money put into it.  And don’t think it will be all fun either.  You are going to have to pull weeds, slap at annoying bugs, and contend with the sun.  Gardening is NOT for sissies!