Everybody .. Garden!

[digitS']

Watching Sunday cooking shows. Steve Raichlen is cooking sweetcorn. I've got corn ... that's better than knee-high . I'm so looking forward to having fresh cooked corn, cucumbers, ripe tomatoes ...

The thought occurred to me: I know the best taste of corn, better than Steve Raichlen. Yeah! That is, unless that Steve has a garden or is invited to eat the sweetcorn another gardener has growing, minutes from pulling it off the stalks .

Admit it, if you have been doing this awhile, you don't understand why anyone would miss the chance to have a garden. I mean, everyone eats! But, even for the beauty of flowers, the cool green of lawn grass, interesting shapes of bonsai, whimsy of terrariums ... something!

Yes, I know that not everyone has the time. They arrive home tired, leave before fully rested, and have non-gardening recreation lined up, especially with other people. Obligations.

I think a lot of it is treating gardening as a form of exercise - boooring! Or, file it amongst those obligations ... But, I think a lot of it depends on simple timing. The timing of gardening tasks.

Now admittedly, I have large gardens which require a lot of outdoor time. I do try to stay out of inclement weather. Try to be in the shade during the heat of the day. Some people don't ... and, it appears that they think of this as "gardening."

I related a couple of years ago about my neighbor down the road spending hours and days out in the heat of the midday sun, killing every green thing in her front yard, building a large brick planter, putting up a small greenhouse ... and, just walking away, not planting a thing!

No lawn grass seed, her yard just grew weeds. Waist high weeds for a couple of years! I couldn't keep track of her since it's about 200 yards away but I even thought she may have moved.

Well, if she did, it was only a separation. She's back this year and once again putting in days killing everything in her yard. The difference is that she planted some grass seed. Her habit of sitting out in the heat of the day hasn't changed. Drive by during that time of the day and it's probably even odds that she's out there, puttering, killing weeds coming up in her new lawn. I wonder if she will be as committed in another month.

I talked with a homeless guy on the street the other morning. He looked weatherbeaten and more than a little drunk. He said something about walking a mile in someone's shoes. I nearly said that I understood and that I too would need to be drinking if I had to sleep on concrete, day after day after day! But, I don't need to have alcohol or some other drug to enjoy or just tolerate being in a garden. I just need to be there at the right time.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Gardens use to be a necessity to eat. Now, they are a work of love.

Wonder what traumatic event people have to undergo to give up life and live homeless with no one.

 

[Jared77]

Lots of reasons that people are homeless. My cousin was for a while now he's got his life back on track and doing well. My brother in law and his wife rode the rails for about a year and a half willingly taking up a nomadic life living in make shift camps and eating out of restaurant dumpsters. PTSD, financial hardship, mental illness, addiction, things happen.

That's part of why it's such a challenge to combat it.

I can't imagine not growing things. I'd have a houseful as well as well as the propert if my cats would turn them to little bits of green confetti. The cactus they just knock down because it poked them so they get badly damaged and end up succumbing to their injuries.

Maybe I'll do a terrarium full of tropical plants one of these days, or some African Violet's and a fern or two. We'll see....

 

[baymule]

My Daddy always raised a garden. I have drifted in and out of gardening in my adult life, but when I didn't have a garden, I had access to someone with plenty to spare. I can't imagine life without a garden. It is ridiculous that millions of people who struggle for food are on food stamps or whatever they call it these days. I would be willing to bet that many of them have a yard where they could plant something to eat.

 

[seedcorn]

Unfortunately we have a full generation-maybe 2-3-that don't enjoy fresh produce as they are used to prepared foods. Then throw in the effort it takes to garden. My wife would be exhibit A. She enjoys fresh produce just much easier to buy in store...... Oh the burdens I must bear...

 

[baymule]

You are right @seedcorn people are used to dumping supper out of a box. People just don't want to cook anymore.

Oh, and you pore lil' thang......you have to raise the garden........

 

[digitS']

I was thinking about juicing and an older lady I know.

Juice is all the rage. DW knows people who make it out of the darnedest mix of things!

The older lady has a garden. She has a meal of all these vegetables, saving every stem and peeling. Those go in a pot of water to make broth. Tossing out the peelings, she puts in pasta and there is soup!

She may be a vegetarian, I've never asked her. She sure thinks about having an inexpensive and healthy diet.

Steve

 

[aftermidnight]

My grandfather had one of the biggest grocery stores in town back in the 1930's yet he brought very little home other than staples and things he couldn't grow like oranges and bananas. He had a large garden and grew most of what they ate. They had fruit trees and berry bushes of all types and they kept chickens both layers and meat birds. Gran canned all kinds of fruit, made all their jams, jellies, pickles and relish. Any other meat was bought at the local butcher shop. He even grew peanuts one year. I ate one just dug and thought it was yucky. They even had a walnut tree, gran made her own pickled walnuts, I never acquired a taste for those.
Coming from Melton Mowbray she made an awesome pork pie but I didn't care for her jellied tongue or head cheese. When gran's health started to fail she stopped baking bread, back then you could buy unsliced bread, she didn't like the thick slices. She used to butter it before she cut, this way the slices were quite thin. Some nights when I was staying with them it was a cup of hot milk and toast with beef dripping. Gardening pretty much skipped a generation but hit me like a ton of bricks, I've been gardening most of my life, did more canning when the family was at home but still do a bit. I don't have a big garden so I do buy fresh produce at the supermarket but when the local farms start selling that's where I head, can't beat the freshness and flavor.
Annette

 

[seedcorn]

@baymule wrong burden..... She buys shipped in produce right before my garden produce comes in. Drives me nuts...because by then we are getting tired of it.

Gardening is my stress relief, my relaxation. The fresh salsa, tomato sandwiches, fresh fried okra, etc; is a bonus......

 

[thistlebloom]

This is probably a terrible confession to make so I'll just go sit in the corner right now...
I like gardening immensely, and I really like fresh home grown produce, but when there starts to be a ton of it and I'm already behind in every other department of my life I really don't want to deal with it. Growing and tending the plants is great. Harvesting and cooking it all, not so much.

I so admire all of you who preserve it all and eat it all...

I am doing a little better at it though! There's hope for me!