The 2023 Garden
It's no surprise I'm in a total funk.
If you are new then its news to you that we are planning to move this year. A new chapter in the book that is The Great Jonestead Adventure. For 6 years we have temporarily planted our roots at a rental homestead surrounded by loving friends and nearby family. But the truth is we knew this was never permanent. The dream has always been to own a little piece of land of our own one day. A place and space that we can sculpt and make our own.
And while COVID and the crazy housing market put a lull in that plan for a few years we are fully ready to move in 2023.
So what do you do when you don't know how long you'll be in a space?
The truth is, I want to garden. I want to buy all the chicks. I want to plan. But the reality is our future isn't dependent on my plan or Nick's plan. It's leaning fully and totally on HIS plan. And in the meantime - in the words of the smart and wonderful Ruth Ann Zimmerman, you do the next right thing.
And it became increasingly obvious to not only myself but to my family that the next right thing for our home was we needed a garden. We started seed, but it was only a handful of our normal collection. When your time is limited its hard to spend that time on something you don't even know if you will see bloom or get to eat.
But, my soul needed it to be honest. I was moody, grumpy and felt out of sorts.
In the words of my friend Shane "Danielle? not have a garden? You might as well throw away your granny sweaters as well!"
So I threw together a garden and basically have thrown every rule and caution to the wind.
What I didn't start ourselves I bought for super cheap from the Amish. I was able to fill our entire 1,200 Sq Ft garden with less than $100. I used weed cover instead of our normal straw and wood chips. I basically scattered the plants about creating a food-forest, in hope we don't have issues with bugs and fungus the way we have in the past since there are pockets of large amounts of the same plants, they are all intermingled.
Why? Because it's a total experiment and I'm intrigued to see how it does. I have nothing to lose this year! If I'm not sure if I'll see this garden to the end might as well get something out of it and my thought is I want a big o'l lesson to harvest. How does the weed fabric hold up? How much better do these plants do since I super spaced them out? Can I go a season with minimal to any weeding without breaking my back moving wood chips? How will stakes and tomato cages hold up to our normal trellis system? How much can I grow with literally minimal effort? Does my family really like eggplant? How do we like our raised beds compared to in the ground? These are all questions I'm excited to get answers to.
So it's not our normal perfect garden.... It's different, and oddly I'm really excited about that. What will grow and how well will it grow? We will find out!
