Pests in my garden

My mom had a vegetable garden. She wasn’t a hobbyist. It was serious, vegetable business in our backyard. From the end of April, until the last tomato was picked in September, the garden section was off-limits to our shenanigans, unless, of course, one of us was dumb enough to say we were bored. If you were bored, the garden always needed watering or weeding. Pests had to be removed from plants and the compost had to be turned. Even when we weren’t bored, garden tending was one of the chores we were expected to do. Most of the garden chores didn’t really bother me, except for tomato cutworm removal. For some reason those massive, green slugs just made me gag. Turning the compost heap paled in comparison.

As an adult, with my own large yard, I can honestly say none of the vegetable gardening “bug” my mom had, has rubbed off on me. With all kinds of opportunities to grow-my-own, I’ve resisted having a vegetable garden. Oh, I’ve grown a tomato plant or two, and occasionally planted basil, but never attempted a “fill the freezer” garden. I like to tell people I don’t want to become obsessed or even mildly possessed by gardening.

Sometimes I tell people I just don’t have time to garden because of my world travel adventures. I know that smell isn’t compost. Anyhow, this year, I decided to plant a few things.

I’d pay attention to the garden, or I wouldn’t. That’s what I told myself. The thing is, my next door neighbour can manage a vegetable garden, three rambunctious youngsters, summer travel, a family business and home-schooling, all the while smiling and harvesting. If that’s not enough motivation, the neighbours down the street have devoted one half of their front yard to a beautiful, raised-bed vegetable garden. Plant envy grabbed me by my hoe, and I really didn’t have any excuse. I’m a big girl. I could handle a couple of tomato plants, maybe a couple of cucumber plants, a couple of pepper plants and a few lettuce plants. How hard could it be? LOML and I don’t really do any travelling in the summer. We certainly don’t have young children to keep us occupied, and as far as the family business goes, I let the family take care of business. And, a garden it is. Every day, I remind myself it’s just two of each kind of plant, but I can’t help dreaming about simmering pots of red sauce, tangy vats of cucumber pickles and who-knows-what with the jalapeno pepper—maybe salsa.

I have had to call upon my nature and my nurture to guide me through the process of creating a vegetable garden. Goodbye flowers. Hello food. Surely some of what I saw my mom doing would have rubbed off on me, right? Recently, I find myself weeding (still a big “no thanks”) and shooing the bugs away. I’ve even made a game of getting rid of the pests by asking the neighbour’s kids to come over for a biology and botany lesson. I’ve been watering the plants and tending the compost bin a bit more diligently than I thought I would. Believe it or not, my little garden seems to be thriving on my version of tending the crops, and it has paid off. We’ve enjoyed lots of lettuce (I know, I know. How hard is it to grow lettuce?). There seems to be a bumper crop of teeny tomatoes, and the jalapeños are starting to look “hot”. Alas, the cucumber plant only produced two cucumbers. Even I know that’s not enough to make a batch of pickles.

I’m already thinking about next year’s garden. Maybe more sunshine and a few more plants. Maybe raised garden beds. Maybe mulching. Maybe more compost. Maybe I’m daydreaming. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca