Author: Will Balk, Jr.

Gardening makes you stupid. Or at least crazy. Well, I guess I can only speak for myself; but, based on empirical data and decades of observation, I can say with at least moderate certainty that gardening makes me stupid. And crazy.

Would you just look at that mess? Some doofus has taken that whole wheelbarrow full of gorgeous newly-made potting mix and moved it out under the eaves of the potting shed.

The figs this year have been more plentiful and much fatter and juicier than usual. Last year was a good year, too, but we’ve had so many it’s hard to use them all before they start getting moldy. It’s the old-fashioned Brown Turkey, a cutting shared from a long-ago neighbor’s yard, now some fifteen feet high and twenty feet wide. A handsome tree, even if it didn’t have fruit.

By Will Balk, Jr. Gardeners probably have as many reasons for not gardening as we do for actually gardening. Fortunately for most of us, the urge to get dirty and the craving for luscious home-grown produce or the joy of brilliant flowers and varied foliage overwhelm any tendency toward complete abandonment. Most of the time, anyway.

When you’re as lazy a gardener as I am, and when you procrastinate just because you can . . . well, sooner or later you have to get right down and start working in the dirt. Today I reached that point and admitted that the new garden bed had to be addressed immediately.

  Okay, my panic is setting in now. The winter never really got seriously wintry for long enough to count, and the severe cold that did come was soon replaced with spring-like sun and warmth for days on end. Then there were those March winds in February; and those April showers, also in February.