The Optimistic Gardener

You may have seen my Garden Bloggers' Book Club October/November book missing from the sidebar. I wrote to Carol, and told her I had too many books going this time of year, and wasn't going to get a chance to read the selection, Eleanor Perenyi's Green Thoughts. I do own it and plan to read it sometime, just not now. Carol wrote back and asked, if as an alternative to doing a book report on the book, I might consider a quote from it, and write about that. Here is the quote:

I can’t resist them and invariably let optimism get the better of judgment, which come to think of it may be the first principle of gardening.

"Them" refers to plants.

Well, it just so happens that my relief from gardening is over. My little vacation from a preoccupation with flowers and vegetables has left me refreshed and ready to begin again. The problem is the month is November, not May. But the consolation is I've started some lettuce, and have begun thinking about next year's garden. The quote is very apt. I can't resist. I have always bought more seeds than I have room for. In my dreams, I have more gardens than I do. And listening to my favorite, favorite gardening book which I just bought from Recorded Books does not help one bit. It is called, Dear Mr. Jefferson, Letters From a Nantucket Gardener by Laura Simon. I've already read it two or three times, and I am happily immersed in it again. I lay in bed this morning thinking, how about an annual bed? I've never devoted space to just annuals, but it would be nice I think to have a little "cutting garden" for the colorful, little jewels that I would love to bring inside to a jar on the kitchen table, or just admire outside. Let's see, how about some cornflowers, which I grew this year in honor of a dear blogger I read faithfully; and cleome for the bees we just might keep next year; and some zinnias Laura Simon loves called "Cut and Come Again" - why not? I've never grown them before; and Jewel Mix nasturtiums because I just saw the most beautiful one I've ever seen here; and some more of the Bright Lights cosmos that were tucked in among the perennials this year, and really should have a place all to themselves, along with all the other beautiful cosmos varieties. Do I have enough room under my lights to start all these? Should I buy some more? :<)

I want to try a few kinds of zucchini to see if I can finally have success, and get so many that I, too, will be giving them away. We had to repair a water line this year, and Tom suggested we use the dug up area for corn instead of putting in grass seed. Hooray! That will give us more room in the garden for peas and yellow beans and those onions we grew this year. And it's been a long time since I've grown spinach and Laura Simon was talking about the old variety Bloomsdale Savoy.

See how it goes? All gardeners are like this. Yes, our optimism does get in the way of our judgment, but heck, that's what makes the world a happier place, isn't it? Optimism is a good thing, as long as we don't get too discouraged when the sweet peas don't blossom or the weeds get to be too much. We let those things go and begin thinking about next year. Ah, the gardening life!