2070 Gardening

2070 Gardening

How many decades married to a gardener and picked up nothing?  This would be the year to remember if there were anything to remember, but there isn't.

With spring finally here this would be the time to start growing tomatoes, potatoes, spinach, peppers, kohlrabi, turnips, peppers and rhubarb.  But, no.  No expertise, even with the bountiful soil of central Pennsylvania, so much more fertile and farmy than the sands of Long Island's south shore.

This would be the spring and summer to grow all that veggie stuff, with the guidance of the farmy types who inhabit this region.  A big saving over the stupor market, a pleasure, getting dirty in God's green earth.  a matter of pride.  Not to mention nutrition.

There have been some trial runs.  A "snake plant" which grows anywhere and under any circumstances is not growing.  A hydrangea brought back from the dead last autumn? The jury remains out and probably will for a month on whether it'll come back to life yet again.  But statistically, the likelihood is not great.  Both the plant and the planter were in bad shape last summer.

And then, there's Randi Cohen.  She's been a gardener for 70 of her years, which is most of them.  She says gardening is not what it's cracked up to be.  She says "you know, there's more nutrition in a can of corn than in an ear of corn?"  Don't believe it?  Look it up.  Randi says "grow a bunch of tomato vines.  See how many hours you have to weed and feed and water and then tell me if 'Hunts' is any more expensive."

So does grow your own save money?  Only if you don't count your time as worth something, evidently.  Yes, if you don't, no if you do.  Does grow-your-own mean better nutrition?  Farmer Randi says "no."  Is that the final word?  No, but close.

Randi holds up a Mickey D wrapper.  She asks "What's worse than reading the nutrition label on a McDonald's Double cheeseburger?"

The answer: "reading the nutrition label on a McDonald's double cheeseburger after you've just finished three of them."

Maybe there's something to growing your own turnips.  Or maybe there's more in reading labels before you order.

Shrapnel:

--You buy stuff.  Soon thereafter, you find a coupon for the same stuff.  By the time you need to buy the same thing again, the coupon will have expired.

--Then, there’s CVS.  Buy an item for 69 cents and you get a stream of coupons with the receipt.  Caution: they expire before you reach the store’s exit.

--We have to prepare for a round-robin reading of the Mueller report if ever we get to see some or even all of it. Start making your groups early so everyone will be in place when -- if -- the time comes.  Promise: it won’t be boring.

I'm Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®

Correspondence to wesrichards@gmail.com

©WJR 2019