A Sound of Rushing Waters

This is a picture of a dogwood bud, taken yesterday before the thaw started. Today was the first day of melting after the freezing rain/sleet/snow mix Friday. We got about half an inch of ice with less on the tree branches, enough to look pretty without breaking the trees. Things melted off nicely, and I'm starting broccoli and lettuce (and some cookies) this afternoon. Great day, blue skies, water and ice everywhere, and ice bits raining down under every mature tree.

Halfway There

And adjust it has! I dug twice as much today as Monday, in two sessions split by lunch and a rest break, with much less soreness than last time. We went to the Cafe for a sundae, and that always helps, too ;).

A quote about why I'm hacking out bushes by W. Robinson (editor) from The Vegetable Garden by MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux (containing a detailed list of heirloom varieties going back to 1920):

" We cannot grow vegetables well under trees, and in attempting to do so we destroy the roots of the trees... The vegetables, too, would be more wholesome for good light and air, for shade from ragged and profitless trees and bushes and hedges is one of the evils of this hopeless kind of garden. The broken crops, too, (for the most part sickly patches) are not such as one can be proud of."

I'm taking out as many "profitless" plants as I can!

Beaten

It was a beautiful MLK Day today. Sunny, warm, breezy with just a hint of January in the gusts, it was a day to be outdoors. I spent part of it this afternoon at the park, and part of it digging. I got out a huge bush, with corresponding roots, by digging all the way around it and prying it out with pick and shovel as levers. The end was an old-fashioned " 'rasslin' " match. Now I do not want to move anything larger than my fingers. My body doth protest the unaccustomed effort. It will adjust.

One Bush at A Time

An altered version of a Dottie Rambo song from my childhood ("One day at a time, sweet Jesus, that's all I'm asking from you...") was sneaking through my thoughts as I started digging the front bed in earnest today, trying to beat out the rain. The bushes and grasses in the front bed have much healthier (larger, deeper, harder to dig) root structures than the ones in the back beds did. It will take me a long time to get this bed dug properly, but just getting the roots out will plow it up pretty well. And don't get me started on decorative grasses. I hope the numerous root nodules I saw on overgrown, exuberantly healthy looking plants ( the roots were packed several inches deep) indicate a healthy soil bacterial population. You know it is going to be a long dig when you raise the pick above your head, swing down with all your might, and THE PICK BOUNCES. This is not rocky soil. It is full of roots. No pictures of the work out front this year, but I'll talk about it. Must rest a bit and continue the indoor work now that the rain has started.

Winter is Here!

We had our first dusting of snow this week. We were hoping for more, but it did not happen. It is also unusually cold! We've been below freezing, even for HIGHS, for a few days now, though we're supposed to warm up next week. The cat's water freezes inside the garage. The 3-gallon bucket outside is frozen solid. No gardening here, though the lettuces and broccoli ARE NOT DEAD! Unbelievable!

I've been reading a lot, collecting herbal tea recipes, and working on the spring planting schedule. The broccoli seeds go in for germination week-end after next. Hope we get a break in the weather to clear beds soon.

My hope for 2010

"You shouldn't have to work that hard." That seems to be a refrain I hear often from people in my parents' generation (the Boomers). Their parents, growing up during the Great Depression and World War II, came through those crises grimly determined to get only the best for their children. They succeeded, and for a lot of people who came to maturity in the 60s and 70s, life was expected to come easy. Get a degree, work in an office, come home to lounge in front of the TV. Big salary, big house in the suburbs. Retire to travel, get a place in Florida in a retirement community, and relax. That was how it was supposed to be.

Things are changing. Even the white-collar jobs are being outsourced overseas. Unemployment is becoming a long-term issue. My generation (born in 1971) will have to shoulder a lot of burdens in the future, with increased taxation to pay incredible debts, care of elders not provided under a decreased Medicare, and care of our childless selves as we age.

We really will have to work hard, probably harder than many Americans in recent generations have worked. We'll have to relearn the skills of frugality (rice and beans and backyard vegetables, hand washing and line drying clothes to make them last longer, sewing and repair, etc.) and extend them. We'll have to reject the label of "consumer" and produce something good for other people. We'll have to turn from our culture's idolization of self and back to God for any long-term good to be done. Let's start in 2010.