As planned, I went to the opening of the Montavilla Farmer’s Market this morning. Everyone was really happy to be there. The farmers were thrilled by the turnout and the shoppers were excited by the offerings. I returned home with strawberries, peas, green garlic, early potatoes (a mix of Peruvian Purple, Red, New and Yukon Gold), mesclun mix, radishes, eggs, jam, and Anadama bread.
Since it is so early in the growing season, there were also a lot of vegetable and herb starts. I find starts to be very exciting. They are baby plants almost bursting with potential. I think I stopped at every stall offering starts to peruse their selections.
I also love vegetable gardens. I enjoy walking around my neighborhood because there are so many beautiful vegetable gardens. Not just during the summer. We live a block from a school that has gardens year round that the kids maintain. They grow everything from grains to sunflowers amaranth to chard to potatoes. I always try to route myself past the gardens when I am walking towards Belmont. I have even been known to go a block out of my way if there is some plant I have been keeping a close eye on.
If I love vegetable plants so much, why don’t I have a vegetable garden of my own? Because I am kind of afraid of dirt. Not the getting dirty part. I was a goat farmer and am familiar with getting dirty. Its not the bugs. I have a deep appreciation for soil’s ecosystem and the roles worms and insects play in creating and maintaining a nutrition-rich environment. I have an irrational fear of things hidden in the dirt.
This fear goes back to growing up in New York in the 1970’s. It goes back to a time when there were needles hidden under bushes, before there were pooper scooper laws, and when broken glass was commonly found in parks and playgrounds. At that time and in that place, my fear was completely rational. Now, I own my own home with fenced back yard. Admittedly, before we bought the house, there was a leaking oil tank. But, the soil was mitigated before closing and that was almost ten years ago.
I do have a fantasy of someday building some raised beds and learning how to grow a vegetable garden. I envision myself becoming one of those people who know all about what grows in what zones and what wants sun and what tolerates shades and what the right amount of water is for each plant. Not that zones would be particularly relevant to me. I think it is a safe assumption that if I buy the starts at a local farmer’s market, I am in the right zone for the plant. And since I would be buying them from a local farmer, I could ask all the relevant questions about sun, shade and water. So really there is no excuse for me not to start a vegetable garden this summer. No excuse, except for that niggling irrational fear.