My husband, on the other hand, has always gardened. Vegetables, mostly. And in the 20+ years we owned our first house in New York's Northern Westchester County, I happily supported his efforts by harvesting, preserving, and cooking anything he grew. He grew just about everything -- organically. And we ate very well.Then in 2004, we embarked on an audacious project. We bought a 1951 ranch house around the corner from where we lived. It was nestled at the bottom of an overgrown mossy hill, and in serious need of some TLC. The idea was to downsize to a lower maintenance property and prepare for empty nesterhood.
Things didn't work out exactly as we planned.
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| Before -- 2004 |
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| Several years after |
We reimagined the ranch as a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired bungalow which, considering we did it without an architect, was a spectacular success. Then we got carried away making terraces, building garden and seating areas. And I got bitten by the bug -- specifically, the flower, shrub, herb, bulb, and I can't-go-to-the-nursery-without-coming-home-with-24-more-plants-to-put-in-the-ground addiction. So now I'm as obsessive about the flowers as he is about the edibles. And there's nothing low maintenance about the garden. And we still eat very well.
This will be my 5th garden year, and I'm still very much on the learning and forgetting curve. Learning which plants thrive in which areas, forgetting in the spring what I planted where last fall. And never getting the pruning right on the hydrangeas. So every garden is an adventure, and hopefully, this blog will chronicle the successes (like last year's anemones) and failures (how do those damned bugs eat all the cilantro in a single day?). And if all goes well, it will cover both garden and kitchen goings on.
