Farewell to the Winter Garden

My husband and I had good intentions, and we thought we knew what we were doing.  Last fall, we started our first winter garden with healthy nursery flats of peas, lettuce, brussels sprouts, and broccoli-cauliflower hybrids.

At first, the lettuce started to grow, and I harvested enough for a few salads.  But the younger leaves attracted a lot of slugs, and those slugs were like your average thieves in the night.  No matter how many slug pellets I scattered out there during the day, it wasn't enough to kill them.

How many times I'd go out to the garden and find all these little slug babies making holes in the lettuce leaves?

So the holidays came and went.  Today, on this dismal day in March, I went out to the garden for the first time this year and wasn't too surprised with what I saw.  Sure, I expected the usual weeds and mud.  The good neighbor fence which came with the house survived the storms and is still standing.  Three years ago, we were hoping it would fall over in one piece so our neighbor could get the insurance money to replace it.

Now that I have writing projects, I've found that I seldom leave the house.  Yes, I'm afraid of getting Writer's Block, and I'm afraid of missing deadlines.  I don't want to chase activities and have such a good time that I don't think about returning to my work.

I heard about this nationally famous landscaper in Sacramento who likes to take any existing suburban land and pour concrete over it.  For about $100 an hour, he can tell you where to lay the concrete and where you should install the fountain as a "water design element".  By doing this, you won't have to worry about weeds or having to work in the yard, again.  You can look forward to sitting in the backyard and listening to gurgling water. 

I think I'll save my money and take my chances with the weeds.  My husband and I can go back to buying flats of more familiar vegetables, then prepare the soil for the annual vegetable garden in late spring.  When you think about it, concrete, summer and Sacramento are an ugly combination in the valley heat.