Cultivating our vegetable garden

My vegetable garden is overburdened with weeds. We are seldom around on weekends and when we are, I prefer to relax at our pool. I try to week around the patio, in the front of the house and in the underused herb garden. These are areas with great need for aesthetic reasons and because of property appeal.

My partner and I are always excited in March wherein we perceive ourselves to be gentlewomen victory-garden farmers. We dream all kinds of vegetables and fruit. We dream self-sufficiency. We envision cooking good wholesome food from produced from our own soil. We are very ambitious.

We hoe and till and compost and plan and dig and plant and water. Our collective ambition dies in May and my own enthusiasm peters out in June. Our tomato plants are big. Our zucchinis are gargantuan and the lettuce has all bolted. The weeds are everywhere. My partner promised she would weekly. Not! She weeded once. I am happy with tomatoes. I don't want to weed vegetable gardens on weekends.

For the prior two summers, a young couple living next door weeded and watered the vegetable garden when we were away. They moved last year. Initially, we were excited. No brussel sprouts or okra or tomatillos: the young couple's choices. This year, the garden would be ours and ours alone! Yes, and it's full of weeds.

This past winter, we met a younger lesbian couple who live down the block and told them they could share in the produce. We did not contact them in spring. We saw them last week at some friends' party. We re-invited them and left our contact information in their mail box. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Free vegetables in exchange for weeding. It's very simple. They even have unplanted vegetables. I am hoping they come through. I hate to see my vegetables go to waste and the weeds taking over. Come on, girls. Please!

Well, I say for next year, it's tomatoes only. It's all I really want and all I care about. My partner can be a gentlewoman farmer in her fantasies. Next year, I will plant and tend my tomato garden without or with the help of others.