Years of silence on this blog have sped by quickly though not without their own ups and downs. My husband and I have recently moved to Kentucky and I am thrilled at all the exciting things happening here. I am a homeowner for the first time in my life, I’m making new friends as an adult in a city where I know no-one, and I am navigating life as a married woman with two fur babies and hoping for human ones in the future.
This time is not without its challenges and I have recently had the thought pop up again and again of how much I miss using writing as a way to reflect. The thought made its appearance enough times that I logged into this old blog to see what I could come up with.
Today marks an achievement that I’ve wanted for several years. I have officially planted a full garden at my home in Lexington!
When I was younger, I would cajole force my mother to buy me tomato plants and herbs year after year so that I could plant them and subsequently kill them with both inattention and too much attention. Now that I have the space to create a garden, I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from Homestead and Chill’s Deanna, but tried to not bite off more than I could chew.
Eight different plant types later with hours spent on research and more seeds than I’ve ever seen outside of a pumpkin, I’ve got a full garden. I’m using the square foot gardening method in order to be more efficient with my space and have less weeding to do. This method allows me to maintain and amend smaller portions of the garden instead of revamping the entire 8×18 foot space. I am holding onto the principle of “starting small your first year” by my fingernails.
What have I planted you ask? Well, I’m hesitant to share because a serious concern exists: what if none of it grows or insects eat it all? But you can’t learn unless you try and fail, right? Here’s the lineup. The plants I did not start from seed include the German Queen heirloom tomato, Sweet Million cherry tomato, San Marzano tomato, basil, and lavender. From seed, we’ll have banana peppers (grown exclusively as a gift to my lovely neighbor, Julia, who has adopted us), carrots, onions, chives, spinach, zucchini and zinnias scattered throughout. I also added some Royal Alyssum to provide contrast against the tomatoes and in my infantile gardening mind somehow deter pests. I want these things to grow, guys. Truly.
I have aspirations of snacking on the cherry tomatoes and giving sun-dried tomatoes as gifts. I see myself dancing to a Lazy Genius Spotify playlist while cooking the San Marzano tomatoes down into a delicious marinara sauce. I can see my friends’ children coming in for snack time after frolicking in the yard and munching on fresh carrots while their parents and I admire stately, colorful zinnias in a vase. The mental image is vivid and picturesque. Despite the conjured summer afternoon of my dreams, my current expectation is if even half of the things I’ve planted grow, I will consider this season a success!
Each of the 2×2 plots was solid clay soil broken up only by worms traveling through and the occasional tree root that required the single herculean swing of a hatchet (who am I kidding, it took ages) to remove. To establish my garden and set up for no-till style in the future, I mixed in compost and an organic fertilizer into the first three inches of soil in each plot. I fervently hope that I never have to do that again, because it was exhausting! I’m okay to take a break from my relationship with my shovel. I pray that I’ll only need to add compost on top year after year to maintain a healthy soil ecosystem. Fingers crossed.
Welp! Here’s a blog post on a blog that’s been quiet since I was still in graduate school. A thing or two have happened: falling in love, marriage, getting a dog, working through complex issues, making new friends, and learning a thing or six. I hope for many more.
Lex do this.
The Diary of a Southpaw 