Oddly enough, I want to plant a tomato plant or two and maybe a pepper, and this is odd because I am not the gardening type. I'm not frilly and afraid to get dirty, mostly it's I hate fighting weeds and bugs, but it is just so much work. Plus the whole not good with plants thing. The weird part, I come from a long line of gardeners. Many of my ancestors were farmers, an idea I find unappealing, but even more recently it had stuck. My mom planted gardens and flower beds, and enjoyed it. Both my grandmas put in gardens and had flower beds. My great-grandma had a big garden and the most amazing flower beds that were a riot of beautiful plants that looked like they just naturally popped up. As a kid I thought they were so pretty, but as an adult I look back and I realize she must have put in a huge amount of work to have overflowing flower beds that look so simply beautiful.
I think the really funny part is I want to put in a tomato plant. I hated tomatoes most of my life. I avoided them, I'd pick them out of all food, and I just did not like them. I couldn't stand ketchup because of tomatoes. Then when pregnant with my second child I craved fries dipped in ketchup. I was repulsed yet had to have it. With my third child I went even further and wanted sliced tomato on things. I went from hating tomatoes to now liking them on a sandwich or salad. Don't get me wrong, I still don't really cook with them and the idea of creamed tomatoes, a dish my great-grandma made and my grandma still does, is just a gross thought. I do want tomato on a sandwich though and the ones in the store are pricy and have no real flavor, so I'm considering growing a tomato plant.
Not only do I have my bad plant juju to contend with, and the fact that our yard is a weed and insect haven, but there's the wildlife. We live in a small city, I think of it more like a town then a city because it is small and when I think city I think New York or Las Vegas, or at least Cleveland. I mean Akron barely counts as a city in my mind and it is somewhere on the list of the 120 largest cities in the US (an idea that kind of blows my mind). Anyway, so while living in a small city we have a fair amount of wildlife. Of course we have deer, because honestly you can find deer all over Ohio. Even Cleveland has deer, and they probably aren't any worse at driving then the people. So we have deer, deer that are used to people. They wander through our yard and just look at you funny if you come outside. We also have raccoons. From the fights I've heard, they are tough little raccoons. It sounds like raccoon fight club in the park across the street. We had rabbits in the yard, but I think the neighbor's cat committed a bunny genocide. We get squirrels, chipmunks, and moles but from the partial bodies I have found I'm guessing that those that don't stay away end up a snack. Other then a brave skunk (it will just walk right up to you within a few feet), I'm not sure what else there is. I know there's coyotes but I haven't seen them in the yard, besides they won't be interested in a tomato plant. I'm not sure how to keep the natives out of the plants. I guess I can hope that there's enough good gardeners around my neighborhood that animals will look at my plants, snicker in an insulting manner, and move on to bigger, better gardens that provide a buffet for timid wildlife.
No comments:
Post a Comment