Gardening full of surprises, failures, too

From a Brighton Garden, by Fran Blank The bulk of late spring gardening work always seems to have to be done in such a short time. Days are filled with weeding, seeding, planting, mulching, edging, composting, and too many other jobs to mention.

Anyone that has gardened for more than a few years knows what I am talking about. The long days just do not hold enough hours to accomplish all that needs to be done. Bedtime is at dusk and garden time starts at early light. To-do lists seem to have no end.

The weather this spring has been wet, with a day or two of dry, than wet again. A good gardener knows you should not work wet, clay soil or you end up with concrete. Patience is not on my to-do list and I admit to sneaking in a little work on too- wet soil. I know I'll regret it when the soil dries into rocks but I'm anxious to have things planted. I also know that eventually I'll catch up and everything that needs to be done will be done but, in early June, I can't see the hammock at the end of the tunnel.

When spring busyness fills my mind, meals and housework fall into a "not on my list" list. All my thoughts are focused outside. My hands become chapped and blistered, my nails ragged and dirt stained. I find myself standing in line at Farm and Home Hardware and, with sudden embarrassment, I realize the knees of my jeans are caked with dirt and, although I do have shoes on, one is Adidas and one is Keds. Just smile and keep talking I tell myself. These people are your friends I tell myself. Gads! Why didn't I look in a mirror before I left home. Just pay for your seeds and get out of here, I tell myself.

At home I'm focusing on building our vegetable gardens. Grocery bills have been scaring me for quite a while and my solution is to grow more of what we eat. Our vegetable garden has nine raised beds and five "on the ground" beds. I know, I know, that's a lot of garden. My reasoning is that I have always dreamt of having a big, beautiful food garden and I say "Why dream small?" Besides, a food garden should grow vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers. My focus this summer is on building soil and producing vegetables and fruit.

I have always tried to understand why other people don't have the desire to grow their own vegetable gardens. I think the problem, for many, is that they have no experience growing vegetables. Food gardening is a lost art. Most of us have lost not just the skills to grow our own food, but we have lost the desire. We have grown dependent on "the system" to provide us with cheap food.

How many times have you heard someone say "Why grow it when you can buy it cheaper at the store?" This belief has caused most of us to care very little about our food system. After all, the stores are always full of food. Why learn the skills necessary to grow your own food when it is so easy to fill your stomach by pushing a shopping cart?

Unfortunately, food costs are growing at a scary rate. Mass production methods are having problems with salmonella and e coli. We need to take more personal control over what we eat.

Food grown in your back yard can give you a security net. Even a small garden patch that provides a few fresh, picked vegetables in the summer can save you money. Learning to freeze, dry and can your own food can really stretch your budget.

Get yourself a copy of the Ball Blue Book, an inexpensive paperback filled with the latest information on canning, freezing, drying, and pickling. Any store that carries canning lids, etc. should sell copies of this fine classic. The Ohio State University Extension offers many handouts on proper canning and freezing methods. Try the website ohioline.osu.edu and click on food than click on food preservation. You will find all the latest recommendations for safely processing your food.

If you simply can't or won't garden you might give serious thought to buying locally grown food.

Gardening is an art that is best learned by doing. Just jump in, plant a garden and learn as you go. The hours spent working in a garden are repaid by a steady accumulation of knowledge. Stuff grows well, stuff grows poorly, figure out why and your garden will be better next year.

It helps to keep a journal or at least jot notes on a calendar. Check out the library for basic books on vegetable gardening. Introduce yourself to experienced gardeners and ask for advice. Most gardeners love to share what they have learned. Be patient and never get discouraged.

Even experienced gardeners have failures in their gardens. The important thing is to learn something from every garden. With luck that first bite of a vine ripe tomato or crunchy, just picked, green pepper will convince you to keep gardening. It only gets better each year.

Maybe, if the gardening bug gets you, you'll lose yourself in the physical work of your garden. Maybe, some June day, we'll cross paths at the hardware store, little brown bags of seeds clutched in our grimy hands. Let's just smile and keep talking. If you promise not to notice my shoes I'll promise not to notice yours.