What Does 5 Months of Neglect Look Like?

Interviewer: What would you say is the single worst trait you possess; if there was one habit or behavior that you would most like to change, what would it be?

Steve K.: Jesus, you don't waste any time, do you?

Interviewer: I suspect you were familiar with my style before you agreed to this interview.  That, or you don't believe in due diligence... [Steve appears uncomfortable, drinks heavily from his 2nd martini]

Steve K,: Fair enough, fair enough.  I'm not perfect, damn close, but not perfect and to answer your.... intrusive and tragically cliché question: My biggest flaw is my inability to balance life.

Interviewer: Are you saying you can't handle "life"?

Steve K.: WTF?!  No, what?  I'm saying I have a tendency to jump, 100% from one platform to another.  To be overflowing with drive and passion for X, only to be distracted and pursue Y and then Z.

Interview: Sounds like you have commitment issues, or... perhaps a fear of.... HALTING your perpetual pattern of seeking -seeking what, remains a mystery... a compulsion of sorts... 

[Steve stormed off at this point, visibly drunk and aggravated]

OK, back to the real world.  That was a little creative outburst from my overactive imagination.  That and I just finished a straight up, ice cold and delicious martini.

Weeds - everywhere!

This is an important post for me.  Near the end of July my tomato crop had been virtually wiped out and it really demoralized me and turned me off to gardening.  Normally I would have bounced back in a few days, maybe a week but this time work got REAL crazy at just about the same time.  As eluded to in the above fictitious interview, I'm TERRIBLE at managing multiple things at one time.  So the farm slowly took a back seat, then a third and before I knew it I had become fully involved in work and the exciting new developments.

People know me, they weren't surprised to see this pattern emerge, yet again.  It still bugged me each time someone chuckled while asking "How's the crop, farmer Steve?"  I had a desire to get things shaped up, but it just wasn't happening.

I haven't stood at that table and planted for over 5 months

Earlier this week I had a very good friend in town, along with his wife, new baby as well as their good friend and his wife.  They were in town for business, but we still made a point to spend a day together.  My friend' a chef and he was aware of the garden but hadn't yet seen it.  I knew this would be an issue so I preemptively stated in an email that I would NOT show the garden/farm to  him because it was in such terrible shape.  I wanted to wait until I had a chance to clean it up and be proud of it.

Overgrown with weeds, dead bean plants, arugula gone
nuts and remnants of tomato trellises

Just as I knew he would - he disregarded my wishes and marched right out to the garden.  It sucked, I hated being in a situation where I was making excuses and talking about what it "used to look like" or what it "would look like again" after I cleaned it up.  We moved on, but it stuck and was a wake up a call.

More of the same, weeds and dead crops

Jump to Today and I decided to begin the process of taking control of the garden again.  A hobby that I worked incredibly hard at, spent hundreds of hours reading about and thought "this may be what I want to do next in life (if I had the $)"  It started with a modest list, just to get the process started and get my body (especially my back) warmed up for the action.

If you've followed this blog at all you've seen how nice I typically keep things, how well groomed the beds are, how the weeds are pulled regularly, etc.

So Today I put in about 3-4 hours of rough cleanup.  It's so bad that I opted for a multi-pass approach, here is the first pass:

1. Cut off seed and flower heads of weeds to prevent further propagation
2. remove diseases crops (tomatoes!) - can't compost them, too risky to spread the disease
3. Pull weeds and other crops for composting
4. Rough rake the rows and beds to collect the weeds and expose the ground so I can weed further
5. Roll up the drip lines off to the side to facilitate bed maintence

I plan to hit it again Monday and take a second pass.  Here are photos of how it looked when I was done Today.