Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall

I have a home with a modest yard.  At least it seemed modest when I bought the place.  To be honest, my frame of reference was skewed.  My previous home was on a half and acre.  Anything smaller, didn't seem like such a big deal.  What the hell was I thinking?

When I was looking for a home there was a lot to consider.  I ruled out a condo because: 1) the neighbors were too close, 2) the HOA's had many many rules most of which were asinine, 3) HOA fees only go up 4) no land to grow tomatoes.  Well you can certainly see where my mind was.  It was all about tomatoes. I wanted a little land to call my own.

The topography of my previous home was a challenge.  Very little of the land was flat.  What was flat had poor soil.  Let me just say, I was dirt poor.  Literally.  There was clay and there was decomposed granite with a dusting of dirt. The first year, I got 4 carrots about 2 inches long, 3 flat watermelons and lettuce I was afraid to eat because of bugs and such.  The tomatoes didn't do much and I may have had a couple but it was underwhelming.  The next year I had a conversation with someone who was successful with growing vegetables in the neighborhood.  Once she stopped laughing, she gave me the facts:  Unless I had a back hoe and wanted to spend a huge amount in soil amendments and the soil itself, I'd do much better to grow things in containers.  Needless to say, that although I did get tomatoes, it wasn't the garden I'd imagined.  Fast forward 26 years.

The back yard was already terraced so I knew where to start.  Since I was in the same general area as the previous house, I knew I had to have a raised bed.  I bought what I needed from Home Depot and set out to get my garden started.  The raised bed took me a lot longer to set up than I had planned for.  Pounding stakes into ground that is comprised of rocks and clay wasn't easy and it actually took me a couple of weeks.  Then I had to tote bags of soil as there was very little access to the back yard.  Not being 21 anymore meant I had to have a little help to start.  Once I realized I could drag the bags of soil I did much better.  After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, the plants were in and all I had to do was wait right?  If you don't count hand watering, weeding, spraying and praying then, yes. 

I was in my glory!  I had tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I had them for snacks.  I gave them away.  I made gazpacho. I made mucho gazpacho.  I gave gazpacho away. I  grew Anaheim chili peppers and I gave them away.  I still have Anaheim chili peppers and may never have to plant them again.  I have parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.  Really.  Love that yard! Most of the time.

As is predictable, I love the yard when the weather is nice and I am seeing the fruits of my labor.  I hate the mundane raking of leaves, mowing the lawn and weed pulling.  Where's the fun?  I have raked leaves, filled an entire giant trash can only to come back outside an hour later to be greeted by just as many leaves as I just got rid of.  Seriously.  Rake, rake, rake.  Fall, fall, fall.  Sisyphus has nothing on me.

Was it worth it in the end?  Was insisting on having a house instead of a condo the right decision?  I think so.  The mundane duties of yard work help me appreciate how nice it is to go into the back yard and pick my own vegetables which taste so much better than store bought.  It's nice that the vegetable season is so long here in my yard. It's also nice vegetable season doesn't happen during leaf season.  You know, "to everything there is a season".  Life is good.