The Impatient Gardener

I am an impatient person.  I can’t wait for spring, warm weather and to start digging in the garden.  I check my seedbeds obsessively until I see the first little green leaves emerging.  Then I stand back and tap my toes until the plants present the first buds, flowers and, finally, fruit.  And then at the end of the season, I impatiently wait for the next growing season to start.  Now don’t get me wrong, I know the schedule and how plants work but I can’t help myself.  I want something growing, all of the time and I don’t want to have to fuss over it too much. 

I finally admitted that I am an impatient gardener several weeks ago when I found myself out in the garden carefully digging to uncover a seed potato.  I had planted the potatoes two weeks before and couldn’t stand it any longer.  I dug down “just to see what was going on”.  In reality the potatoes were only a couple days away from emerging but I couldn’t wait – I just wanted to make sure the little suckers were really doing something!

The potatoes were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing and emerged right on schedule (yes, even the one I dug up) and I realized just how impatient I really am.  Sometimes being a little impatient is a good thing though.  It makes me look at what I am doing and ask, “Is this really necessary?” or “What can I do make this process more efficient?” 

  

In this blog, I want to focus on the things that make an impatient gardener tick: the principles and practices that give us the most bang for our gardening buck and limited time.  What do we really need to do for our garden to succeed and flourish?  What techniques let us maximize our production in a limited space?  What practices minimize the amount of busy work we need to do in the garden?  What little secrets will let us go out and pick produce out of our own gardens when everyone else is headed to the grocery store? 

I hope that you will join me in this process, even if you aren’t an impatient gardener.