The End of an Era

Well, we made a big decision to say goodbye to the garden plot.

[play taps]


It was a spring of what can only be decribed as "meh" about the garden plot.

I went out there once and spent over an hour just cleaning out the smallest bed and planting lettuce.

An HOUR!!

It was absolutely thick with weeds.

This picture shows them all piled up next to the tiny bed.

It was crazy.

Other than that, the garden was a mess!
Our winter cover crop never sprouted, bed edging desperately needed to be re-done, and there were not horrible amounts of weeds all over, but definitely very tall ones in certain areas.

Spring was so delayed anyway and then I had a busy few weeks while garden plot partner was out of the country and so there it sat.

A mess!

We had decided to scale back anyway and try to focus on what we could grow well and do more established plants instead of seeds.

I was thinking that perhaps I wasn't "feeling it" because we'd had some pretty miserable fails the last two seasons.

And frankly - a community garden only works if you live nearby.
Apparently working nearby isn't enough  because staying after work means fighting extra horrid traffic on the way home (or staying there even later and starving!).
Or going out in the heat of the day over lunch breaks to weed and water...not ideal (and actually, 4-5 is typically the hottest part of the day here, so after work is even worse than doing an early lunch around 10 or 11!)

The more I read, the more I realized that consistent watering is so key.

NOT our strength!!


So partner gets back from her trip, we compare notes on how poorly we've done with it and she finally says, "Soooo....how committed to the garden are you this year?"

Oh dear. How do I graciously say that I'm struggling to get motivated and pessimistic that our watering habits will be any better?

Then she lays on me how I'd feel about giving it up because she's really not feeling it this year.

Oh!

We discussed it for awhile and since she has moved from an apartment to a townhouse-with-a-gardenable-backyard since starting the plot, we both agreed that it wasn't ideal for us anymore.

We wondered about having to muddle through the year planting only a few "sure-fire" crops.

She decides to email the garden organizer just to see if there is interest...

Hears right back - yup, there is definitely a waiting list; someone would be ready to take over the next weekend!

Well alrighty then!

So she spends that Saturday doing a smashing job cleaning it!
I went out for a bit the next week to grab a few things and give it a final look and then slowly walked away from what has been a fond, fun (mostly :-D) and educational journey.

And that's it. Just like that we pass along a really spectacular garden plot weeded and with lettuce growing and blueberries, strawberries and grapes already blooming.

Dear stranger: please take care of it!!

I'll miss the beans and soybeans which always did well.
I'll miss the peanuts.
Other than that, it was so hit or miss from year to year what worked and what didn't!
So I won't miss that. Or the "stress" of when to get out there and finding over-ripe veggies because neither of us could make it, etc., etc.

Now I just need to get creative on growing more edibles in my quite-shaded-except-for-the-front yard!

Farewell, little garden.