Hello.  My name is Tracey and I’m the worst gardener ever.  Welcome to my support group.  I didn’t set out to be the world’s worst gardener; it was not because I didn’t have good intentions or a pure heart or unwillingness to give it “the old college try”.  It’s not that I forgot to water or fertilize or get rid of caterpillars.  I think it’s just good ole’ Murphy’s Law and really bad luck. So, I told you last week about the rats that invaded the garden less than 12 hours after I planted the fall/winter vegetables.  We set traps, and for the first couple of days, they seemed to work.  We caught three big, ugly rats and thought that our problem might be coming to an end.  But, the rats kept coming and you know what? They are getting smarter!  They are actively avoiding the traps.  They don’t take the peanut butter that we set out as bait.  They went after the most vulnerable plants in the garden and They Ate Everything.  Remember all …

Lemon Thyme My little cinderblock garden has pretty much been dormant for the last two months, but this week, with the brunt of the summer heat behind us, it was finally time to clear out the old and bring in the new!  So, starting last Monday, I began pulling out all of the dead and dying summer zucchini, cucumber and tomato plants in order to get ready for our fall and winter plantings.  This sounds like a pretty simple plan, right? Well, because it’s me and nothing ever comes easy, let me assure you it wasn’t simple! First off, the zucchini plant.  As I approached the plant, I couldn’t help but notice that the topmost leaves had turned completely black!  I thought, “wow, these are in worse shape than I thought” but continued toward it to put it out of its misery.  As I grew closer and reached my hand towards the stem, I saw that what I thought were withered, black leaves were actually covered with a swarm of horrifying beetles! I, of course, …

As I write this I’m sitting in the backyard with my laptop, tiki torches lit, listening to Adele playing through a bluetooth speaker and feeling grateful for the modern technology that allows this.  And then around the corner lies the very non-technological garden plot that flummoxes me and supplies me with new mysteries to contemplate each and every day. I should clarify that the reason I am blogging about our gardens is not because we are experts in gardening.  These gardens, both the traditional soil garden and the aquaponic garden, are works in progress and we are learning through trial and error, as well as getting advice from friends and friendly folks we meet at the garden center. When I last wrote a garden update, things seemed to be progressing very nicely.  We had had a series of windstorms that wreaked some general havoc, but all the plants were healing up nicely.  Today, there are some new developments and some explosive growth as well as a few plants that I’m about to write off as …

This has been such a difficult week, with so many emotions to process.  There was great sorrow mixed with gratitude for the life we have.  There was even more sadness after learning of the devastation in West, Texas; then there was relief today and the ability to finally tear myself away from constant news coverage.  I don’t have many wise words to share about the events this week, but what has helped me get through the week is spending time outside, watching things grow; seeing life springing up.  There is something deeply meditative about spending time in the garden. The past two weeks have actually been pretty hard on the garden.  Twice we’ve had strong windstorms coupled with a drop in temperature.  The wind really did a number on the plants in the aquaponic bed–I’m not sure why, but it might have to do with it being elevated to waist height.  The morning following the storm, I went out to check on everything and found the tomato plants were really bruised and battered, the peppers …