Our Summer Garden

For the last five years or so I've have had a summer garden. I decided to do what so many urban families are doing these days and tore up my front lawn and put in some vegetable beds. Each year I've had the most luck with the basics: tomatoes, zucchini, and yellow squash. Much to my disappointment cucumbers have never done well. I'm told perhaps I'm not using the right variety. I'll keep trying.

As the years go by, I've felt pretty successful with these few crops and the bounty they produce each summer. This year I'm starting to feel more brave. I've been reading about families living on small urban plots like mine, producing incredible yields on an annual basis. For more on this kind of awesomeness, check out the Dervaes family at www.urbanhomestead.org. They produce up to 6,000 pounds of produce on 1/10 of an acre.

When I think about planting more varieties of vegetables and doing some sort of crop rotation so that I can have producing plants year round, I get really excited. What's stopped me in the past has been twofold. One, is the time commitment and I've simply been putting my attention on other things. And two, fear of failure. I've worried about doing it wrong, or wasting time, energy, and money on crops that don't yield. What if I tear up our whole yard and then find I am incapable of growing anything other than my three main hits?

So today I was thinking, yeah, so lets say I do mess it all up. What then? It's actually related to my larger fear that bleeds into many other areas of my life which is about messing up, being emotionally untidy, looking foolish, making mistakes, having regrets, etc. But then I thought, what if I was successful? What if my wildest dream came true which is to provide all of my produce for my family myself? What if my home became this incredible, lush, paradise for herbs, fruits and vegetables and that I loved every moment of nurturing this?

Chances are, things will fall somewhere in between, but the point is that I might be willing to risk it now. I think I've actually had a belief somewhere inside that says mistakes are bad and should be avoided at all cost. I would never, ever, teach this to Nora Lee and yet I have a tape playing inside that hints at this.

Here are pics of our sweet garden this year. The fruit trees I planted a few years ago produced more fruit this year and we actually got to eat some of it. Last year we went to war with the squirrels and the squirrels won.

This year we had two rats take up residence in our tomato patch. They decided our property was a pretty great place to live and in the last few weeks we were actually seeing them scamper around on a daily basis. This time we prevailed. What I mean is, two murders took place. I have the luxury of feeling sorry for the little critters and having Matt do the dirty work while I feel conflicted and then relieved at their demise.

Salsa making and canning MUST take place this week!