Gardening at Night

As I work on my 97 year old house, I usually document projects with "before and after" photos. One of my biggest projects this year has been my garden, and I have to admit that the "after" photos on that project are far more interesting and attractive than my newly installed pantry shelving system or the freshly sealed and repaired crack in my top step.













This year, I hauled in over 2500 lbs of dirt, skimmed the top layer of soil off and filled my raised bed garden with new, clean fill dirt and a small amount of store-bought manure and planted basil, rosemary, thyme, and sage that I'd grown from seed. I added some red-a-million tomatoes from Home Depot, a few basil plants (because I was impatient!) , tarragon, and purple sage from Soulard Market, and a butternut squash, 3 jalepeno plants, 2 eggplant plants, and a few striped zebra tomato plants from Steph and Bob. I also got some mint, chocolate plain, and planted them in a back corner of my yard as I knew in my last house, some mint plants had taken over the existing garden. Alas, my plain mint died and the chocolate mint, while thriving, has not proliferated like the mint at my old place.
The progress was slow at first, but then the basil took off. The photo below is all basil, one lemon and the rest standard basil. It was taken after a storm a few weeks ago so there was some separation the branches and some "settling" but they are truly still basil bushes.In the last month, Rob and I have really started to reap the rewards of this mess o' green! We've made lots and lots of pesto (with more to come. Pesto, anyone?), had lots of tiny little red tomatoes while still waiting for the green zebras to grow, eaten one giant butternut squash with sage for seasoning, and just yesterday we picked this beautiful eggplant for this coming week's menu. Here it is in its natural habitat, and then about a week later with Rob to give size perspective.

















The squash was wonderful, and its really a rewarding feeling to have a meal that is comprised by half or more of things that I grew myself. I'm learning as I go, this is the largest garden I've ever had but another of my undertakings will certainly help my gardening efforts next year. That project is my compost pile!! Yep, that's it on the left, and it is one of the very first things I built after I moved in one year ago. It should have some really quality compost right about now, so my current garden did not benefit from this pile. From what I've heard and read, one year is prime time for compost. So next year, when I (hopefully) expand my garden, it will be rich with composted nutrients. Most of what I know about gardening, I learned from Pat and Bea, our dear family friends who had more of a hand in raising us than anyone besides our parents. Bea and Pat always had the most incredible garden. The vegetable and fruit garden filled both sides of their big yard, and the back of the yard was a flower garden with a bird bath. On the left were neat rows of peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, onions, a bunch of other things that I've not forgotten, and asparagus. On the right were strawberry plants, lettuce, spinach, mint, and a variety of other herbs that must have grown well in the shade of Mr. G's giant oak tree. The garden always seemed to be perfectly symmetrically planted, weed-free, and carefully watered. I loved that yard, we spent hours out there in the summer caring for the plants and drinking water with lemon juice just like Bea liked it. Pat had potted plants ALL over the inside and outside of their house too, and as she became too sick with cancer in the last year, she gave me lots of her plants. Many of them needed replanting, a sign of just how sick Pat was because in years past she meticulously cared for her greenery, repotting as needed. Even the last time I saw Pat, as she was directing me to take more plants from her bed where she was confined, there were still a few that she was hanging onto. I'm sure Pat was attached to a few of them, or at least to the idea that no one could care for her plants the way that she can. She's right. I haven't killed one yet, but I've had some close calls with the potted plants. Here is one that has thrived and probably already needs to be repotted.
I don't know how she kept up with everything, but I'll always attribute my gardening interests and skills to Pat, who died on August 12. Bea, at 20+ years older and nearing 90, was always healthy as a horse until a week before Pat's death when she broke her hip and now this week she has gotten word that she, too, is filled with cancer. A big part of my childhood is slippping away, but I get to carry some of them with me. My garden and my dog are both loves heavily influenced by Pat and Bea, as they shared their lovely garden and beloved mutt Buffy with my siblings and I.
As I look around my yard, I see my spider wort and catnip growing around my birdbath and then my humble vegetable garden, and I know that Bea and Pat will always be with me. Every time I smell a tomato plant, give my pup a bath in the backyard, or sip water with lemon juice, there they are.