Saturday, January 30, 2016

It Shall Be....

From Where it Came

    One of my earliest memories from childhood involves the magical view of my mother. We are in our vegetable garden and she's back-lit by the sun. It dances around her like an aura, so much so that her face is a little blurred. We are digging up carrots. I feel like I'm digging for gold, its so exciting.
    OK, back to reality yes much of my early years were in a garden. I sound like a hippy loving tree hugger....maybe I am. A few weeks of my summers were spent on a farm in Nebraska every year. My great uncle, my great grandmother lived there and it was always so amazing. So with all that jazz its not surprising that when I bought my first house I was all about the garden. We grew an amazing crop of squash and Brandywine tomatoes. Every year it grew bigger and bigger, so much so that I gave away the vewggies and fruit to the neighbors. Until I had twins. Then i grew bigger and bigger. But I kept the fruits of that labor! Kids+changing grade level every few years=the diminished garden.

A Brand New World

    OK fast forward ten lovely years and my whole life has changed. I now live in the Pacific Northwest. Apparently this is a big deal compared to Southern California, specifically the agricultural town of Camarillo, where we are fun. We shall see PNW, we shall see what kind of gardening adversary you are. I no longer teach in a classroom. My days are now filled with a few must-dos, ideally, and a butt load of may-dos. What is with THAT saying?  A buttload? Who has a buttload of anything? Um OK don't answer that. Don't think about that at all. Forget this internal dialogue.

     Most of my projects involve some sort of weird DIY, salvage, or re-purposed items. Insert the GARGANTUgarden! Now that I have time, I shall will it....and it will BE! Just to be clear, the GARGANTUgarden is so named because that is the size of my dreams for the garden, certainly not the reality. I have high hopes though.

    Eleven fruit trees planted a few weeks back, thank you Bay Laurel Nursery. Yummy yum yum!  Planted with the intention of producing fruit for at least half the year we shall have Apples, Cherries, Plums, Italian Prunes tiny little plums I bought specifically for the purpose of making German dumplings with, Peaches, and Persimmons. I'm so flipping excited! In three to five years I may actually have fruit....I'll pretend that it will come sooner.

     Armed with my awesome planner, my Wonder Woman mug, and some yummy tea, I set out to draw my plans for every square foot of property. Overdoing it? PSH Of course not! I'm not and over doer...I plan judiciously and a little over the top...maybe. 
  Then being my very anal self I then alphabetized the seeds I have, scheduled the plantings, and made a master list so I could further organize which seeds I still need to order and note what I have in stock. I'm addicted to organization and data, judge me if you like, but I have alphabetized seeds. So there! :) Now, I'm ready for the really fun stuff, creative gardening! Me and Wonderwoman that is...
 Best,
Mandy

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