My Third Garden

This is the third year I have planted a garden. In 2007 I planted a garden at my in-law’s and had some success with squash, suzhini and green beans. I from my failures I learned about plant placement and soil amending with compost and manure.

In 2008 I planted my second garden in the back yard of the house we moved into in Concord, CA at the end of 2007. I selected the sunniest spot in the back yard, tilled, amended and waited anxiously for my harvest. I did and enjoyed a fairly good harvest of my newest favorite squash, patipan squash. The other squash did not do good compared to my 2007 garden and I only had a few tomatoes while my in-laws had enough for 10 families. I planted some cucumbers in the back yard and had too many growing so I transplanted them into the front yard and there they did extremely well. I also planted some pumpkin seeds in the front yard on a whim out of a pumpkin that was left over from my in-law’s garden the year before. I didn’t think year old pumpkin seeds left in the pumpkin would grow but grow they did and we had many pumpkins in the front yard, the biggest of which was 47.5 pounds. Lesson learned from garden #2, things grow better in the sunnier front yard.

Now, 2009, I begin my third garden and it will be in the front yard. I researched landscape gardening and plan on creating something that is appealing to the eye and the summer vegetable loving palate. I hope to document my experience here. I’ve thought about what to call this blog and as I’ve been thinking about it I realize that I am generally doing some sort of thinking while gardening, either about what I’m doing or other things that have gone on.

From www.merriam-webster.com, “Ponder implies a careful weighing of a problem or, often, prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter (pondered the course of action). Meditate implies a definite focusing of one's thoughts on something so as to understand it deeply (meditated on the meaning of life). Muse suggests a more or less focused daydreaming as in remembrance (mused upon childhood joys). Ruminate implies going over the same matter in one's thoughts again and again but suggests little of either purposive thinking or rapt absorption (ruminated on past disappointments).”

So I begin my first blog, Ponder Gardening.