ask not what your garden can do for you but what you can do for your garden

On the way to hockey i was talking to one of my buddies about gardening, he has allowed a community group to come in and garden in his backyard in an effort to learn about gardening and in the spirit of sharing with ones community.

One of the things that came up was that he was told that his garden needed more love and that it was important to have people spend time with his garden so some people (who apparently had background criminal checks... who's worried now) were going to come and spend some time hanging out with his garden... and from what he understood they figured that their presence was going to will the garden into a fest of blossoms that the world has yet to see.

Let me set the record straight... man gardening = pro gardening and company= weeding watering and pest monitoring. What one doesn't need is some groovy hippie sitting in a lawn chair in some Zen prayer, not that I'm against hippies in Zen prayers, but if you really want action get your ass out there in the garden at midnight with a quality headlamp and start picking off nocturnal invertebrates that savage plants. Too much for you little sissy... i say if a man can stand in a bar at midnight toasting the fact that his early spinach salads are delectable (which a man should do) then surely that same man can pop out to the garden @ 1:00 AM for a half hour of quality slug plucking. And then in the morning when the average wuss is sipping a coffee and feeling sorry for himself a real man would pack a coffee and get out there and lay a good soaking on the garden. Any man worth his ginch can suck back a man sized coffee and work a garden hose, and what a way to start your morning! You visualize your plants ready to start the day and they have all they need and then you see yourself in your plants and you transfer that positive man energy into making your day the most productive it can be. All day long you know your plants are taking that sunlight, capturing that energy, an creating nutritious and delicious food... what are you doing? Are you Man enough?

next time we will talk about co- planting, soil preparation and other things that i happen to think of and remember as i harvest dinner.