- It's not rocket science. Last year I thought it was a little weird when my parents and two of their friends stood around and admired the dirt in my newly dug garden. "Look at that black dirt!" they said with enthusiasm. They all grew up on farms, and they knew what they were talking about. Midwestern soil is good stuff. You could almost plant a brick and wait for it to sprout, bearing baby bricklets in dusty little pods.
- Vegetables don't have to have full sun. For years I thought, "I'd like to have a garden but I have too much shade." Last year I learned that shade can be good. I planted chard and lettuce in the bit of my garden that's shaded by the houses for part of the day, and they bore beautifully all summer. Lettuce will bolt in full sun, so it's nice to have a cooler spot for it. I also put in beans, peas, and some herbs in that bed, and they throve.
- Pay attention to the spacing instructions. I found it impossible to believe that my spindly tomato seedlings would really need to be feet apart. It's hard to imagine the July jungle when you're holding a little three-pack, but this year I am more trusting.
- There's more joy in gardening than I expected to find. I love to watch those baby shoots reaching for the sunlight. I posted last year about finding myself talking to my seedlings, and I am looking forward to greeting a new batch in a couple of weeks. There's something deeply satisfying in feeding my family with food I grew from seed. Although I thought it was unlikely that gardening would become a family project, my older kids assassinated Japanese beetles (for a small bounty) and my youngest son pitched in all summer long. Last week he was instructed to draw a picture of something he especially liked to do with me, and he brought home a picture of the two of us in the garden. Today he came home in a foul mood, irritated with the whole world. "The tomatoes are looking pretty wilty," I said. "Want to help me water?" Poof -- his unhappiness evaporated as he lugged his little watering can from spigot to seedlings, busy and hopeful.
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