The Vegetable-Herb Garden

"May your garden, like mine, give you "Victory" over the high cost of fresh vegetables as well as the joy and good health that come from living close to nature." Jim Crockett "Crockett's Victory Garden, 1977.

My next door neighbor spends close to $500 a year on a lawn service. That's not including mowing. That's just for the treatments. The American suburban lawn. After I mowed a small section of our shrinking lawn yesterday, I yelled over to him that it only cost me $12 to mow this time! I prefer to put my sweat and some compost into my garden from which we can reap some fruits during the spring, summer and fall. Yesterday, I finally planted mesclun mix (Canadian @$9/lb in spring), Bibb lettuce, Cos/Romaine lettuce, scallions and cilantro. I had been waiting on a rototiller man, but I couldn't delay any longer. The growing season is too short in upstate NY. For the past 12 days it has been unusually warm and dry for April, but today brought a cold soaking rain. Warm and under lights, I have three varieties of tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, culinary herbs. My shallots are outdoors freezing their bulbs off hardening themselves to the cool nights. Bush haricot vert and chives should just about round it out for the 12x20 ft plot that I have worked for 25 years or so. I remember my grandmother refusing to let my cousin use a rototiller in her garden. This was many years ago when tillers were not that common. My grandmother's garden had running water, pear trees and chicken coops in the back. It was not a small garden, but it was well fertilized with manure. She fed at least six households with fresh vegetables, fruit, eggs and chickens. I venture to guess that it was maybe 10-15 the size of my small bit of fertile land. I don't know the exact reason why she refused a tiller in there, but I suppose it was new fangled and that was enough. But you know, she was right. Turning my garden over by hand does a more thorough job than a rototiller and does not compact the soil. Like the old farmer's saying: "Plant corn when the oak leaves are as large as a squirrel's ear."