It's A Jungle In There

In February, we had a very important family meeting around my dining room table. Given the seriousness of the subject matter, I offered to provide dinner - pizza, salad and beer or wine - as a way of settling everyone in.

The decision at hand? Whether we would expand the family garden located in our yard and really commit to it this year, or whether we would bag it altogether! I love a garden. I love the thought of venturing out in the Summer and picking dinner fresh from the vines. I love the self-sufficiency of it and the fact that you can give a colossal brush off to the grocery store, even if only for a few months. The problem: it is a lot of work and I suck at it. It's not for lack of trying. Each year, hope sprang eternal as I waded through my garage looking for the trowels, rakes, stakes and shovels. We'd till the soil, fertilize and sow. I would lay down landscaping paper to help knock out the weeds. How many tomatoes should we plant? How about eggplant, peppers and beans? My Spring trip the nursery was a yearly pilgrimage, a fresh start, another chance to get it right. And then it would all go wrong. The gate would be left open and the deer would have a ball. There was an underground railroad delivering all neighboring moles and voles to their version of rodent Thanksgiving. They feasted on my onions, leeks, peppers and beans. I would over water, then I would under water, causing powered mildew to kill my summer squash. And those cute little critters with the floppy ears - the rabbits - honed in on my carrots like a missile to a target. I couldn't bear it. Every year I vowed it would be different. And this year it is.

With the help of my husband (rototiller extraordinaire), my nieces and nephews, and other family members from time to time, we hit it hard. We doubled the size if the garden, and although I did make my yearly trek to the nursery, we started many plants from seeds. We installed sturdy deer fencing and staked down the landscaping paper to keep it in place. We created large mounds to plant the plants and installed a few raised beds. And the real cherry on top? We put in drip row irrigation on a timer. No more rigging a sprinkler to a post hoping the water would hit all the plants. Go big or go home.

The thing is this: it's a jungle in there. The plants are, knock on wood, thriving. The harvest is bountiful. But, you need the skill of a Cirque de Soleil performer to get to the tomatoes. The winter squash have climbed up the fences and are now clinging onto the bird netting. The melons are attacking the cucumbers. We need to recruit Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible to liberate the corn from their stalks. Entering into the garden is a little like Alice and the rabbit hole. I couldn't be happier.

As much as I love all the incredible veggies, what I loved even more was the process. It was a lot of work and we exhausted ourselves, but we had a lot of laughs as well. I huge shout out to Luke and Ashely Roberts, my niece and nephew, for without their labor and love, the garden would not be. Still, we know there is room for improvement. The moles and voles still had their way with us - and our peas. The powdered mildew killed my acorn squash. But beware, my pretty, we are already strategizing for next year!

#Garden #Vegetables #EastHampton #Hamptons #Summer #Harvest