Jim has taken to calling me Farmer Jean; he’s never happier than when he can just slightly and ever so kindly mock whatever bee-of-the-moment I have in my bonnet. For a few years I’ve been growing a very few vegetables, in a exceedingly desultory way, mixed in amongst the perennials and shrubs. My current bee is that being able to grow a few edibles is an important skill that shouldn’t be lost by the masses, or at least not by me. Not that I ever had any skill at growing food nor has that probably changed suddenly. But one tries! And we are bombarded with dire warnings of earthquakes and the consequences thereof. Of course if we ever have ‘the big one’ in my lifetime it will be in January and my farming skill won’t do any good. On the other hand if we have the quake that is predicted for Vancouver Island, Calgary will be ocean front so it won’t matter.
So Jim, who humours me in most things thereby earning the right to mock built me, even though I like to think it’s for us, a tiny kitchen garden. And then he hauled in all the soil and spread it for me while I swanned off on a social engagement. Giving myself some credit I did buy the seeds and do the grid for the “square foot garden”. I’m not sure what the premise is but making a grid is somehow supposed to make for more efficient use of space so I’m trying it. I also decided to ignore the package instructions and directly sowed some bush beans, beets, and lettuce. What the heck they are only seeds and Costco’s garden centre opens in ten days which is about when I’ll know the seeds didn’t germinate. And in our teensy plastic greenhouse, thank you Betsy, I’ve started some other seeds and if they are as successful as other years it’ll be another trip to Costco for plants. Oh yeah, you have to water the seedlings don’t you. That’s the part that I seem to forget.
