The one veridical share I hope to make to the literature of vegetable horticulture is my full brazenness . I ’ve been growing so much intellectual nourishment for so long that failures of any form do not faze me , whether due to Acts of God or my own negligence . I firmly think that perfection should be leave behind to the professionals ( and also that even the professionals never reach it , because Mother Nature has her moods . ) Unlike perfection , half - assedness and laziness are reasonable goal for hoi polloi with Clarence Day jobs . And fortunately , when it comes to growing food , half - assedness and laziness are generally sufficient for success .
Here ’s trial impression : My community garden secret plan , which I visited exactly three times over the course of the season : Once , in mid - July , to plant . Once , in mid - August , to thin the carrots , inhume the Irish potato plants in their trench , water , and skunk . And then again yesterday to reap .
I claim the plot in the inaugural class of alovely biotic community gardenorganized by the delightful Susan Bokan on a while of vacant land at Wesley , our local senior housing campus . Since I trade my second home base , I now garden in my city backyard , not in the grand garden I had in the country – and I often feel a little claustrophobic there and long to spread out . When Susan called me on June 6th to provide me a bed , long after I ’d gotten my own backyard garden in , I said , “ Susan , it ’s a picayune late in the year , is n’t it ? ”
But half a 2nd later , I thought , “ 2d craw of potatoes ” and took it .
I wound up annoying the rest of the community gardeners by conk out to plant until mid - July . Hey , I know my potato agenda very well ! But for many weeks of the summer , my six by ten foot raised seam was the only unpretty square in a pretty patchwork quilt .
Besides as many potatoes as I could cram in , I planted only three other crops in my bed : A strip show of Daucus carota sativa at the front , a individual row of sweet potato , and a row of collard . And then I forgot about the whole cursed affair , until mid - August when it occurred to me that I should really thin those carrot . The bed was very ironical , so I watered , just that once .
I live in the Northeast , where this particular shape of neglect – a failure to get out the hose – be given not to be lethal .
Yesterday , I pull out a lot of spud from that little bottom and a shuddery routine of gorgeous , sweet carrots . I ’ll let the collard sit a little longer .
And the sweet potatoes ! A entire flyer . A crop I ’ve never grow before , primarily because I hold out in an uncongenial climate for perfumed potatoes . fresh potatoes are native to South or Central America and are reputed to want a prospicient produce season and dozens of heat energy . I cerebrate I would give them a endeavor this twelvemonth , now that I am gardening in balmy Saratoga Springs , NY , Zone 5 , rather than parky Washington County , NY , Zone 4 . In bounce , I tried draw berth going in the house as per instructions , using constituent sweet potatoes from the supermarket . A total failure : no slip , just decompose sweet potato bits posture in shock of foul water on the windowsill .
intelligibly , planting sweet white potato in mid - July in upstate New York is silly . But notwithstanding , I did have a couple of sprouted sweet potatoes sitting around the kitchen as I was planting my biotic community garden bed , and I stupefy them in the ground in the name of science .
My God , what a productive craw ! Each sweet potato yield tons of untried ones . They were n’t immense , but surely would have been delicious , except that a vole had beaten me there and eaten nearly every one hole . In fact , I disturbed the fat little field mouse with the excellent palate while yanking them out .
But I do not consider this a failure ! Instead , it is an informative experimentation . And next class , by God , I will make gratifying white potato vine work .
I roll in the hay vegetable gardening ! A tiny small plot , the minimum of attention , yet nonetheless , always the chance not just to eat well , but to learn something new .
