From This Dirt Forward

I’m jumping back into the rhythm of gardening and blogging after a two-week hiatus.  My post-vacation hands are a little softer; my nails a little whiter, but I’ve never been more enthused to get back in the dirt.  I’m feeling refreshed and inspired to keep my flowers and veggies from fading into the dog days of late summer.

Harvesting our garden produce and admiring its growth spurt after returning from our summer vacation

This may-like motivation is the result of returning home from my July vacation and being thrilled with all the new blooms and the plethora of harvestable goods.  It’s easy to overlook the small daily changes in your garden, but after a longer absence, it’s awe-striking how quickly plant life changes. 

Of course abandoning my homestead in the peak of growing season isn’t easy.

Two summer vacations ago, I had just moved my army of veggie and flower containers from my apartment patio to my new country home.  Doug (my boyfriend) and I set up an automatic sprinkler system to care for them in our absence.  We returned to find that our irrigation had malfunctioned (on day 1) and my beloved companions were limp and barely clinging to life. 

Still recovering from my losses, last summer I left Doug (my fiancé) at home to tend to the gardens while I vacationed solo.

This summer I thought I’d better reprioritize the people and plants in my life.  After all, it would be a little awkward to leave Doug (my husband) at home to water the tomatoes while I attended the wedding party thrown in our honor.  So I settled for plan C… hired help. 

We left our container gardens, our 100 potted mums and our dog in the care of one brave friend.  (In hindsight, I also wish we’d left our weeds in his care.)  On our drive home from the airport I made the prediction that we were more at risk to find our plants drowning than wilting.  I think that caretakers are so afraid of under-doing that they over-do.  I was kinda right.  Our plants looked happy and lush, but our Maddie waddled up to us looking uncharacteristically plump. 

Plucking basil leaves for pesto with one very happy canine

Now it’s catch up time.  For the past few days, we’ve been scrambling to dig the rest of the potatoes and onions, freeze sweet corn (before the birds eat it all), broccoli (before the worms eat it all), basil pesto (before the Japanese beetles eat it all), and blueberries (before I eat them all). 

It’s good to be home.

Now,  about those weeds…