I've always wondered if the nursury rhyme referred to "Mary" or the "garden" as contrary. I can make a case for either, I think.
If you've never been a gardener, now is a grand time to start. As in, finish reading this blog, click 'follow' and enter your email address to verify your identity just to humor me, and then go out and find a sunny little patch of earth where you can plant something. It doesn't matter if it's only two feet square, if you like to eat, you'll enjoy gardening.
Now go get the shovel and turn the earth over and chop it up. If it's a little bigger area, you might use the blade of a pick. It's great! Unless the soil is rich and black and loose, you might want to go to Walmart and buy a sack of humus and manure. It will cost about $1.37. While you're there, grab a couple of packets of seeds and a cheerful little tomato plant or two. (Indeterminant on the tag means the vines will trail all over the ground if you don't prop them up. Determinent means they behave better but produce less abundantly.) The letters after the name of the plant indicate diseases they resist. If you have a humid, fungus-y disease smitten place, the more letters the better. I like Early girl and Better Boy. (I have no idea why they have such sexist names, but they should do well almost anywhere.)
Mix that sack of dirt in well. Plant the seeds in clusters and you'll get more from the space than if you plant in a row. Allow a few inches in between the seeds and don't plant broken seeds. Bury the tomatoes deep and tip them on their sides. Bury all but the top leaf joints under an inch or two of soil. The plant will look like it's lying down for only a day or two, but the stem will curve toward the light and you won't be able to tell that it was lying down. (new roots will grow along the stem and increase plant vigor It may even send up new plant shoots from the joints). Water it all well. Give it a little miracle grow or "blue koolaid" a few times as it grows. (The Store brand of 10-10-10 mixture is great) Check your garden daily. Pick off bugs and kill them. Crush tomato horned worms. Shoot the deer and rabbits and roast them on a slow spit as an example to other critters. (Ha! You think I'm kidding!)
Garden fresh produce tastes spectacular. Once you develop an appetite for it, you'll realize that it isn't so hard to produce. You'll find varieties that do better than others. You'll get exercise and sunshine.
And when all is said and done, you might, you just might, maybe need to know how to grow your own food. Now is a much better time to start than later.
Feel free to ask questions and make comments and tell all about your own garden and BY ALL MEANS GIVE ADVICE!
Now, I'm going out to harvest the asparagus.
Labels: food supply, gardening, home produce, prepare, self-sufficiency