Extreme Gardening #4 Extreme Gardening #4

(Photo: c. 2006 John Carlson)

Extreme Gardening
By Sean McEntee, your vegetal correspondent

So many seeds, so little soil.

“Oh my god, ya’ll didn’t actually eat there did you?”

That’s the kind of question you don’t want to hear shortly after you’ve finished eating an uninspired, vague dish of refried beans, in a deserted restaurant and then decided to hit another place for a coffee to go. Chatting with the waitress you allow that you wish that you’d found this place first; clean, bright, crowded. All the signs you are looking for.

You do know why all the seed catalogues you get have so many varieties don’t you? Because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. The bounty is bigger, the taste is richer, and the disease resistance is more colossal than ever before. What you had last season was awful and it was because you picked the wrong seed, not because you avoided your garden like it was infested with pythons after June first.

Well, it was infested with pythons, so you were wise to avoid it. But this year don’t bother buying seeds it just encourages them. Don’t even bother harvesting anything, just leave it there, in the ground, and let nature do the rest. You see the plant flower and produce seeds, then topple over and die. Next year just stand back and watch the seeds sprout up all over the place. Have you ever walked on a thick carpet of tomato seedlings?

I didn’t think so.

Next week:
Mulch ado about nothing.