Today's blog comes from Chevy Chase, MD, where I recently relocated and brought my garden along for the ride. In a two part journey, I carefully wedged tomatoes next to a toaster over alongside basil and in between sheets and towels, determined to shuttle this creation of mine (however masterful or disastrous it has been!) to its new home.
In stage one, I transported my weaker plants, thinking that if the journey was too strenuous, at least id know better next time for the thriving plants. I felt a bit guilty discriminating in this way, but I had little other choice. Despite my concerns, and my perpetual panics on the car ride that the air conditioner was blowing too strongly on their leaves, they made it here in one piece. It was a joy to rub the leaves of the tomato plants in my fingers and still smell that sweet, unmatched scent.
When my own move finally happened last week, it became obvious that our cars were already too crammed full of stuff to transport all of the remaining dozen or so plants. Since the new tenant of our apartment was a friend, I decided to leave some of the plants behind in her custody, including all the lettuce, the thyme, and a few others. It wasn't an easy decision, but I had already pretty much determined that something had gone wrong with the lettuce (it wasn't forming any kind of head, but had gargantuan leaves which flopped over the side of their container and looked somewhat limp and inedible at all times) and the thyme just wasn't going to grow beyond the tiny and delicate formation it had been at for weeks.
In each car, I carefully placed the thriving basil and the now two foot tall tomatoes, carefully re-attaching the dental floss ties to the stakes to keep them upright. In my car I plopped down my pride and joy-- the one highly successful eggplant, right where I could keep an eye on it. Still, a few weeks later, a real live eggplant is growing, purple and bursting from the stalk of this plant. It is taking far longer than a typical eggplant should, but I will be patient. This is all about patience.
So, the journey was overall fairly successful, but I realized on my drive southward that the dinner I promised never happened. In fact, it never even occurred to me. Perhaps I was too busy concentrating on moving, or perhaps my subconscious was protecting me from the harsh realization that I would, as I feared, only have basil to serve for dinner. Either way, my apologies for neglecting that promise to anyone who was eagerly awaiting some fresh backyard dinner!
Still, there's a good six weeks or two months left in this growing season, and I'm still holding out for the first bite of a ripe tomato (getting close from the looks of it!) or even better, a delicious Thai curry or ratatouille dish made with that eggplant. And since there is so much time left, I won't hurry on to reflect on the successes and failures of this garden just yet....
Thanks for sticking with me, and if this stuff about local food and sustainable agriculture gets you excited, check out Michael Pollan's article from the NYT Review of Books for an excellent sociological take on the "food movement": click here. It has given me inspiration to continue this blog on the broader 'movement'....!
ps joni mitchell (or csny) "woodstock"
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