Someone brought a fellow gardener, introduced to us as a Master Gardener, out to see our garden, thinking that since we both are absorbed in the cultivation of earth we should get along great.
Unfortunately he sneered at my companion-planted garden rows and the huge number of tomato plants I’m growing – one row to trial different varieties, two more for a double-blind tomato breeding experiment for Seed Saver’s Exchange, and a few more plants of my own saved-seed varieties I want to select for another generation.
He dismissed the idea of breeding late blight resistant in tomatoes as “probably just a magnesium thing,” and when i tried to explain the problem of late blight, he interrupted with, “Well, I can’t argue with an expert.”
He told me my seed saving project with the rare annual-blooming carrot variety was only a result of my soil being too high in nitrogen, and scoffed at my home-saved lettuce seeds for being too numerous.
Gardening is like that…everyone has their own way of growing and tending to plants.
Some gardens are wild, and some are all tied up in neat rows. Some are filled with flowers, and some are strictly practical. Some are large and sprawling, and some are beautiful little container gardens. They are as various as the situations people try to garden in, and the personalities of the gardeners.
I like to grow flowers, herbs, and vegetables all together, making my garden look wild towards the end of the season. I’m not concerned so much with appearances. If i am getting plenty of vegetables, wild tangles don’t bother me.
I love to disappear in the garden, hiding behind tall dill plants to eat the first ground cherry or sweet pea (the gardener’s privilege i think), and return eventually with armloads of fresh, fresh vegetables, their colors and smells inspiring me as i carry them into the kitchen and begin washing and peeling and trimming them.
This week the garden gave us fresh tomatoes, garlic, onions, and basil. Mmmmmm…. pizza!
I had some dough rising. Hand ground fresh from winter wheat, mixed with olive oil, salt, water, and sourdough starter. Proofed overnight, stretched into crust.
The onions are beautiful and sweet this year, maybe all the wood ashes i sprinkled on. I made the sauce with tomato paste mixed with broth, grated fresh elephant garlic, onion, salt and black pepper. On top
I added the fresh vegetables…
Two kinds of home made fresh cheese – chevre from our goats milk, and a fresh hard cheese from the cows milk, made with rennet and kefir culture.
Now home grown Italian sausage, home processed and hand ground, seasoned with onions, fresh garlic, crushed fennel seeds, pepper, and white wine.
A drizzle of olive oil on top, and baked in the wood stove.
Gardening is an expression of the heart, our inner landscape laid out in real pots and beds.
Whether you keep your plants well- tended, or let them have their freedom, your reward is all the abundance they can provide. And nothing, nothing beats a home grown meal.
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 
You do amazing things and your garden is beautiful. By your fruits, abundant good produce, you are known.
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Thank you! It’s good to realize how everyone does things differently!
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Funny with the master gardener…I throw seeds everywhere and stick cuttings all over the yard. If it doesn’t make it, it wasn’t meant to be…
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I love that! And things will surprise you that way. We did our flower garden like that last fall and it was really fun seeing what grew where.
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You would think elitism and ego wouldn’t survive humbling task of working so closely with mother nature. You’re my idol Angie so keep up the great work! Man that pizza looks good!
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Thank you!!! I wish you guys were here to share it with us!
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Perhaps gardeners and horticulturists have different ways of doing things, but my way is the right way.
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Hahaha! You are so funny!!
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Funny? Perhaps. . . but always right.
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Think about it though, even on a more grand scale than mere gardening, who could really say for example that French garden design is the only right way, and those lovely English gardens are just wrong because they have a different style and philosophy behind them?
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The world would be a very boring place if we were all on the same page. The only constant is that . . . . oh never mind.
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Haha! True, but don’t tell our master gardener that! He would have a few words about it, I’m sure.
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Well, I never was one to take master gardeners too seriously. Some are more pompous than I am, but few are as educated. (I have not yet met one here who is as educated as I am in horticulture.) Unlike me, they are sometimes mistaken.
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Yes, i think its the pomposity to knowledge ratio that can be so annoying
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I do not get the impression that my clients find me to be all that annoying, no matter how much effort I put into it.
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I meant for master gardeners! Horticulturalists are a different breed I’m sure.
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Some of the Master Gardeners are quite proficient at pompously offending others, and they make it seem so effortless. In that regard, I so dislike being outdone.
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Hahaha!
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Ooo that pizza sounds delish!!! I love making meals with food raised on our property or by someone I know!!
Who cares what a snobby gardener thinks??! What you have going on is glorious!! Great job!!
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Thank you! And thanks for reading!
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