I Suck At This
A few weeks ago, we put in our vegetable garden. (Yeah, very late, but it was a really cold spring and it rained a lot and I was really busy, okay…?) My husband prepared the raised beds. He excels at this – mixing in composted cow manure and turning over the soil – fresh and soft and warm.
We have four raised beds. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, cucumbers, eggplant, swiss chard. Yum.
(By the way, we’ve done kale as well as swiss chard in the past. I don’t like kale, but I know it’s good for you, so I gave it a try. And guess what? The deer ate every bit of the swiss chard and didn’t touch the kale. I rest my case.)
We’ve had a few successful years – like this one:
Seven Foot Tomatoes
When my husband had the first bed ready, it was time for my part.
“I can plant the tomatoes while you start on the second bed,’ I offered.
“Oh no,” he said. “You can’t do tomatoes right…. maybe you can do the peppers.”
Yup. sticking plants in the ground is tricky.
But I guess peppers is a bit less tricky than tomatoes.
So I planted peppers.
And now several weeks later, I have to admit – the peppers look kind of wimpy.
This Sunday, we prepared all our annuals for our patio pots. (Yeah, very late, but it was a really cold spring and it rained a lot and I was really busy, okay…?)
Hubby prepared all the pots. He has a good system. He puts stones in the bottom of the pot for drainage, and then filter paper,and then his secret mix of soil and manure.
And when he had a pot ready, I designed a nice combo of annuals – petunias and impomoea and impatiens and angelonia. I planted every pot with an eye for good color patterns and a nice symmetry and fit for each pot.
Fifteen in all.
Like these:
And as I finished each pot, Hubby carried it to the designated spot on the patio.
And..
I watched him…
FIX…
every…
one.
Yup, sticking flowers in dirt is still really tricky.
- Posted in: Humor
notquiteold 
I need to borrow your husband! He can even do the tricky planting part but I really need him to do the prep work next year!
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I appreciate his skill. Apparently, he does not appreciate mine.
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Apparently. There is a bright side though. You get help. (We all know you fixed them when he went back inside!)
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Hubby “fixing” your potting? Annoying. But deer eating your Swiss chard? I would cry.
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Yeah, but you’ll get better as you devote more time to it (as retirement approaches). At our house, the lady does the flowers and I do the veggies & herbs. Cannot claim unbridled success, though.
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I actually think I am good at it. Hubby does not seem to share that opinion.
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A word of warning. Blight is being reported by my gardening friends in Litchfield and Farmington. There’s a copper based fungicide that is used by March Farms available at Litchfield Nursery, ask John Acerbi. Fingers crossed.
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Ha! Men just HAVE to have the last say — even if it’s potting plants! Even a flick of a leaf lets you know that NOW it is done. Love this.
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Yes, it is so very easy to screw up sticking a plant in the dirt. Did I mention that I work for a nursery?
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That makes it even funnier!
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Everything I touch withers and dies. That talent has been worth its weight in gold for decades.
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Nice! No one ever expects you to garden!
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NEVER! Can you say “Diabolical”?
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You are a genius.
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*Bows*
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Hey, be happy he will do that. Give you time to research deer scarecrows or something to run the munching creatures off….but you have to admit if they left the kale, maybe…
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Kale is just awful. As another blogger once said, “I might as well eat grass the dog peed on.”
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I can’t get over 7′ tomato plants! I prepare my soil with manure, too, but have never gotten those results. I bet that was the year YOU stuck all the plants in the ground. 🙂 This is my first year growing lettuce and swiss chard. The lettuce has been great but the chard has lots of holes in the leaves. I cut most of them away and there’s some new growth, which, will hopefully yield some nice chard. I bet hubby pretended to fix your flower pots…how can he make them better than what you’ve photographed?
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He didn’t change and positions of the plants, he just planted them “better.”
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Beautiful, Nancy! I wish my husband and I would get a hankering to do some sort of gardening or planting of some sort. Maybe one day…
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My husband used to garden with his mother. He really is very good at it. But he doesn’t abide imperfection.
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Can relate to this! Hubby is the expert in our garden 🙂
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I was a late bloomer as far as gardening, since I had uncontrollable hay fever all my life. The right medication has really changed my life – but I will never catch up to Hubby’s skill level – at least in his eyes.
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Ha ha! So much like my own husband, but it’s great when you can divide up tasks according to your strengths. My husband did raised beds this year, and it’s the best garden we’ve ever had. However, I am the one who is good at nurturing, pruning, harvesting, and cooking the produce. This works out just great as long as we appreciate each other’s skills and don’t act superior. (Sometimes that is something to overcome!)
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But tell me, how wrong can I be when I have dug a hole and stuck the plant in and covered it back up?
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I agree with you and your blogger friend who made the remark about kale. It’s just plain nasty along with collards and beet greens. If a deer won’t eat it, it can’t be very good for you!
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I tried making kale chips the year we planted kale. The recipe said, just like potato chips only healthy. Yeah, just like potato chips if you let them sit overnight in an ashtray.
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Looks like you’ve devised a terrific way to get the work done: kind of, sort of, launch into a project and then walk away and let your hubby revise it/perfect it. Works for me!
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I think he uses the same strategy with housework… he screws it up badly and then I don’t ask him again. See: https://notquiteold.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/the-conspiracy-2/
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So funny! And what a gem you have there – the man with the magical mix to achieve 7′ tomatoes! I would definitely let him “plant it better” and keep ooohing and ahhhhing too. 🙂
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He hates weeding though. He thinks I excel at pulling weeds out of the ground.
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Maybe it is in the genes, but I hate kale too, although I love all other greens. We have had pretty good luck with swiss chard, though. (Hope I haven’t jinxed us by saying that.)
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Kale is just too bitter. I did sample one recipe from a friend that wasn’t too bad. Chopped really fine with pineapple. But it would have been tastier with swiss chard! (and the deer have wreaked havoc in our garden this year too….)
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I can’t eat peppers, they repeat on me, repeat on me, repeat on me, repeat on me…
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I like peppers. My husband likes hot peppers. The kind where you better not have a paper cut when you chop them.
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Bmmp fff errrp — excuse me, sorry!
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My skill is putting beer out for the slugs, other than this single amazing skill I have no other outside garden skills.
Your past gardens look fabulous (I like Kale).
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We’ve been warned to not put beer out for slugs, because neighborhood cats drink it and get sick.
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Really? I never knew that. Well now I do, it has been a very long time since I have had a garden, so I will simply file this one away as something not to do anymore. Thank you for the tip.
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Those tomatoes look beautiful! I’m pretty sure I have a curse that makes it impossible for plants to survive my love…
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