The Gardener’s Life

I remember summers foraging in my grandfather Serko’s small backyard vegetable garden. When I was very young the garden and fruit trees took up much of the yard. As the years past and he grew older it shrank in size.  Eventually all the trees died (I’m not really sure why) and were cut down, not a one remains today.  He didn’t grow a large variety of things but like many backyard gardeners he always had lots of tomatoes.  What could be better than a freshly picked sun-warmed ripe tomato, the acknowledged star of the summer garden!  Yet, it is the deminuitive carrot that I recall most fondly from those days. 

He would encourage me to help thin the carrots by picking a few before they were ready to harvest.  Parting the surprisingly fragrant green carrot tops, lightly probing the soil to examine the bright orange root tops, I’d look intently as if searching for some buried treasure in the carrot thicket to find the perfect carrot worthy of eating.  When I found a suitable candidate a careful tug so not to disturb its neighbors, a quick rinse with the garden hose and I was soon rewarded with the most marvelous taste treat.  Fresh homegrown carrots bore so little resemblance to their store-bought cousins that they made a lasting impression on me, I had to grow some for myself someday.

It was not until my early twenties in Gainesville, FL at the UF that I had a garden of my own in the student garden plot.  In central Florida one can grow vegies almost year round. However, with sand for soil and intense heat, twice-a-day waterings were a must.  Miss a watering or two and everything would be dead.  Everyday I’d hop on my bike and ride the 3 mile trek through campus past gator infested Lake Alice to my little plot.  My neighbor Ron, an experienced gardener from Belgium, gave me pointers and in no time I was harvesting melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and lettuce.  It was very rewarding and I felt like this was something I could do for a lifetime.

When we moved to Washington I was able to grow vegetables at various rentals and even had a garden at a friend’s house but it was not until we moved into our current home of almost 20 years that I was able to establish a real garden of some scope.  Now you’d think that with such a longstanding interest in gardening that I would buy a house with ample sun, open space, and beautiful rich soil but its quite the opposite.  I live in a place best suited for growing moss and ferns, not vegetables ..... the woods.  Here on beautiful Vashon Island in the heart of Puget Sound we are nestled under a canopy of 100 ft plus douglas fir and hemlock trees.  The native undergrowth is a mix of salal and evergreen hucklberries..beautiful plants in their own right and well mannered garden neighbors!  The soil is sand and rocks with little real topsoil that I’d trade for central Forida soil any day!  Digging requires a strong back, heavy boots, a stout shovel, and a digging bar.  Plant the shovel, stomp hard, go down about three or four inches and you are rudely stopped by rocks intent on having you dig elsewhere.  The 15 lb digging bar persaudes them otherwise but it is agonizingly slow and tiring.  Oh… did I mention that almost my entire property was heavily wooded requiring us to clear a spot for a garden?  What was I thinking?

For about 18 years I’ve managed somehow to coax plants into growing in this less than ideal location.  Our climate in the Puget Sound is maritime, Climate Zone 5 which means it is moderate, not too hot or too cold.  My spot in the woods is even cooler, I don’t get sun in the garden until about 10:30 in the summer and it only lasts until about 3.  The challenge for every gardener is figuring out what grows well in the garden and what doesn’t.  For me there is no sense trying to grow hot weather crops like peppers, squash, tomatoes, etc., there isn’t enough heat for them.  My niche is ideal for crops like broccoli, califlower, lettuce, beets, garlic and assorted other cool weather crops.  String beans seems to do well if planted late and basil always seems to make it but with a lot of TLC.  I grow all my stuff from seed.  This year has been cool and wet most of the Spring and the first few weeks of Summer are about the same.  The garden is about three weeks behind normal yet somehow things are starting to grow and the vegetables are now outgrowing the ever-present weeds… the gardener’s life.