Here we go. Again.

Gardeners are optimists. We have to be. Seattle gardeners, however, are optimistically delusional. Especially this year of 59 degree days in July. We think "This year, I'm going to plant it all. And the sun will shine!" While my little square foot garden has been planted 3 years in a row with low and varying degrees of success, this year, I gave up, moved the plants into containers in the front yard, where there is heat and more sun. Some lettuce stays in back.

Where I live there are rules about how crazy your front yard can get. And we have pushed the boundaries, ripped out grass, and planted only what can survive my sporadic attention, a 20 degree cold snap, and a 90 degree spate. In that order. We're talking perennials, here. Sedum, Hebe, fuschia bushes, yew, grasses, lavender and the list goes on. I did that in 2009 and while I thought the back yard got enough sun, I was wrong.

What my new front yardscape has allowed is camouflage for my containers of tomatoes, peppers and lettuce. The rounded border of two- to three-foot perennials allows me to cache my little green pups in the front yard and avoid getting fined for an excessively unruly yard.

And everything is growing in my south facing front yard. Not perfectly, because there is the ridiculously cool weather to deal with this year. But big green tomatoes are popping up. I need to figure out what to do with a Habanero and a Pasilla pepper. I have cilantro I forgot to tend and it's getting gangly. Hopefully I can trim it and it will sprout.

But at least I'm growing something this year. That is my victory.

2009 - A Victory Garden, Defeated

What started out in late 2008 as an intended "Victory Garden" in my suburban Seattle backyard turned into a "Garden of Defeat." Why? How could that be? Not weather. Not soil. Not seeds. Not squirrels, cats or moles. Not even bugs or mold. Why then?


Well, um... because I didn't really start it. Not in earnest. Sure, I painstakingly planned my garden, the seed locations, quantities, sunlight and heat requirements. I bought fine organic seeds, lumber and brackets to build out a perfect Square Foot Garden and even some nice soil amendments. I bought containers for the front deck and filled them up, put some seeds in it. Watered it. Bought a few starts just to get a jump. Left the lumber and brackets on the back porch. Went to Lowe's and bought bright fluffy flowers for the existing planters and got my instant gratification. Then, I lost all my pluck. Poof. Gone, in one instant gratification day.