In the sub-zero wasteland of the planet Hoth, only the strong survive..

[botias]

Remember those t-shirts in very questionable taste that I gave A for his birthday? This is wrong, so wrong. I give you: the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag or 'And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.' OK, that was therapeutic. Sharing really does help.

I've been reading The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden. It's a reasonably entertaining mix of cautionary tale and garden porn. (He and his wife are both well-paid professionals, and they live the dream, fixing up a grand old house in an idyllic small town, and having a large, professionally installed garden put in filled with spiffy topsoil.) Nevertheless, he battles deer that belly crawl under his electric wire, groundhogs who learn that electric shock is temporary but Brandywine tomatoes are forever, strange grubs that seem right out of a Pern novel, but are apparently something that folks that live in areas which are not mine must contend with. I'm not sure what my point is. Perhaps it's time I went and baked my cookie dough.

Comments

[shinybaum.livejournal.com]

People with nice gardens just upset me :D

*stares at three foot high grass*

[botias.livejournal.com]

I make sure that my front yard is messy and overgrown so as not to upset people unduly.

[louise39.livejournal.com]

Those are weird-y deer in that book.

My favorite quote:
"Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow."

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I just came indoors from stalking around my tiny little back garden. We had robins-- the first ones I've seen this year! It's starting to feel kinda like spring around here. But my poor garden is barren. I need to get things cleaned up and looking a little better cared for!

I can so relate to the $64 tomato. LOL!

[prophecygirrl.livejournal.com]

Because nothing says "sweet dreams" like simulated intestines! :P


Hubby and I have a running joke about the cost of growing tomatoes in our yard. I grow them in wheeled containers, because of the tree roots, and so I can attempt (once per season) to drag them around the yard following the bits of sun we get. And then encase them in wire and attach pinwheels to them to protect them from possums. Then there is the self-watering container mix, and the organic fertilizer, and...yes $64 sounds just about right. D'oh.

[botias.livejournal.com]

It was definitely not a pro-deer sort of book. :) There's very little that inspires homicidal rage more than having one's carefully nurtured seedlings devoured overnight.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Yay for spring! Robins are neat birds, they have presence, especially for something that eats worms.

I know. It sounds like gardening is a hobby that happens to produce food. I often find free or cheap wood or bricks for infrastructure, but once you buy paint, mortar, concrete, brushes, trays, special trowels, fill dirt... not so free anymore. Then there's the cost of the water, fertilizer and the time... one's got to be better off buying from the farmer's market, even with their boutique prices.

[botias.livejournal.com]

Yup. One just has to think of it as a hobby or a labor of love that just happens to have edible side benefits. You can't eat a ski, right? Plus, exercise!