In the garden!

Nick and I are attempting our first garden this year.  The house we live in has a decent-sized backyard for being in town and there's already a little garden plot in it.  The past years the neighbor has been using the garden space, mostly to insure that weeds don't creep into his own from our yard.  This year, he may need to take different precautions.  Nick and I fully intend to plant some veggies there, but there are no promises to whether we will prove to be conscientious about weeds or that sort of thing.  We're newbies.  We're learning.

I'm excited about it.  Scratch that.  I'm excited about the harvest.  As much as I love The Secret Garden, and could read it every year, truly, I don't fancy myself to be much of a gardener.  I don't mind plants, but I kill them far too easily.  And I hate bugs.  I have a horror of bugs.  My contribution to bug control may not go beyond the suggest we plant marigolds in the garden, as I hear they are a natural bug repellent.  For pete's sake, if that's true, let's plant them throughout the house!  I hate bugs.  So, I honestly can't see myself spending a lot of time tending our dear, little plants on my hands and knees with my hands deep in the soil.  I will gladly keep the garden journal so we can improve on our gardening experience from year to year (because we're pretty serious about wanting to grow vegetables and doing some canning and preserving); I will gladly help harvest.  I will gladly go out and water on a hot, dry day.  But weeding and debugging may be out of my league.

My concern is that we not be overwhelmed this first year.  We've made a list of veggies we'd like to have.  It's a long list.  This doesn't include the strawberries and blueberry and blackberry bushes I'd like to get (though I may suggest those go on the other side of the yard when we get it straightened out).  I have things I want to make: gratins, salsas, tomato sauces (though the sauce I make right now is so easy...), etc.  I want to get vegetable cook books and learn more about preparing them.  Nick and I have discussed the benefits of being vegetarians, but we don't really think we could do it.  However, if I was more proficient at preparing vegetables, aided by an abundant harvest that must be eaten, we might be able to cut our meat and carb consumption down enough to be respectable.  I love that idea.

So a-gardening we go!  I intend to update regularly on the garden.  I want this to work.  I know I've likely romanticized having one a bit, but I've been jealous of a friend's canning and pickling stints and the produce from her plot.  Maybe it will take time, but hopefully we can turn over a new leaf!