There are a few markers in our life that are largely driven by the calendar. There is, of course, the holidays and the fact that I like to celebrate the entire holiday season including Halloween all the way through New Year’s Day. Then, there is the winter-into-spring calendar when I obsess over when the snow will stop. And obviously, Memorial Day. That’s a big one in the northeast for gardeners. Plants have to be in the ground by the end of the weekend to set yourself up for a fall harvest. So, in our world we have one incredibly big marker: when the garden gets planted.
Truth be told, that’s a huge pressure lifted when you can put down the shovel and stack up the planting trays. Mother Nature waits for no man or woman. So, those seeds started in April and all of that work done will be for naught if we don’t get plants in the ground timely. Yesterday at 5:58 p.m.? The remaining 15 of over 400 plants went into the ground. Earning the honor as the last vegetable planted? This year it was celery.
Now, that’s not to say the garden is fully planted. Of the potentially 350 row feet of ground to be planted, we’ve got about 250 done. What’s left is all direct seeding. Now, we likely won’t get the full 350 row feet planted this year, but we likely will do another 50 row feet and those rows need turned with row cover installed before we drop in seeds. BUT… the big work is truly done. This year, we also took the time to install an irrigation system underneath the row cover, which should also pay off in significant time savings throughout the summer. The final good news? Finishing this final 50 feet is really only a few hours of work and my hubby will get into his own Zen mode when he’s out there methodically cutting small holes into the row cover, dropping in seeds and gently covering the seed with fresh compost. With a beautiful weekend ahead of us, it does my heart good to think that there’s very little work left to plant and that this one thing my hubby loves so much – his garden – is off to a fabulous start this year.
Then, we wait. (And water, but that’s now going to be much easier with the irrigation system.) Very slowly, the plants get bigger and a few blooms will appear. Soon enough, the onions stop looking like tall weeds and look like the vegetable they are. As the potato plants poke up through the ground, they turn into small bushes with some pretty foliage, to be honest. Most of all? It all feels like summer.
Ah, summer… Where have you been the last nine months? We’ve missed you.
I think that’s one of the biggest psychological benefits of the garden, honestly. You can’t look out at it growing and not realize that it’s really and truly summer and that feels wonderful. With Memorial Day just about upon us, summer is waiting to burst wide open onto the seasonal scene and bring with it all of the glory of the best season of the year. (Yes, I know I said fall is my favorite season, but summer is what sets up fall.)
Today, I’m just taking a few minutes – now and when I’m on the tractor later – to simply enjoy that its summer. In a week where I have not been super productive with work, it’s still okay. Everything will eventually slot into place. Most importantly? On Friday at 5 p.m., it will be the unofficial kick-off to summer and we have a three-day weekend to celebrate.
In a year of rapid-fire changes and life events for me, summer is a seriously welcome balm. I am dreaming of long, slow days when minutes or even hours are allowed to pass by without a personal accounting due for each second and when days are reliably warm and you don’t have to think “shorts or jeans,” you simply choose shorts. I’m looking forward to simple pleasures like backyard campfires, kitties enjoying the sunshine on the deck and home-prepared meals with food picked directly from our garden. In all of the crush leading up to this weekend, it’s been a whirlwind. Quitting my job and starting my own microbusiness, finishing the floors upstairs, and an incredible 10-year delayed honeymoon to Antigua made for a jam-packed first five months of the year. I’m ready for slower days, warm nights and just a little less stimulation.
And there is no better way to slow down the pace of life than to watch your garden grow. It laughs at your impatience and it welcomes your simple awe. As you watch it grow, it reminds you of the pace at which life should be lived. It welcomes you to rest as you meander its sunny paths and it reminds you that the best things in life are really truly free.
The plants are in the ground. Summer is here.
The Yuppie Homesteader 