2023-10-16: garden

we didn't do much with that yard because we didn't know how long we'd be living there. when we moved in, we thought, four years, maybe five. by the end it was nine. we never bothered to make a proper vegetable garden: we grew potatoes and tomatoes in containers, and when we moved to the new place, that yard was a blank slate. we didn't really know what to do, but we did a little, laid down sod, built a little vegetable garden in the back corner of the yard, then told ourselves we'd add a little every year.

we have, mostly. every year we plant vegetables: potatoes, tomatoes, and whatever else. i just finished digging up the potatoes. the last tomatoes are green and slowly ripening in lines on the dining room table. last year, we added more irises around the side of the house. we didn't do anything this year, but today talked about planting black-eyed susans in may. as many perennials as possible. things that spring back every year, things that don't require a lot of work.

it's a bunch of work in late spring to get the vegetables in, and then mostly autopilot. the perennials are easy; they largely take care of themselves, maybe a little water if it's hot. and maybe one of these years we'll get around to trying trees again, the first ones we planted barely lasting a year, their bark stripped by hungry rabbits in the winter, the trees dying by the end of the next year. crab apple? dwarf cherry? something that flowers pink: a little shade eventually, but mostly that blaze of colour to look forward to every spring.

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