In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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April 6, 2007

Welcome to In the Garden

April springs its mild weather on us, and I get excited all over again about gardening. It’s a thrill to go out each morning and see what’s sprouted or bloomed since the previous night. I can’t wait to pull into the driveway after work, and walk through the garden. I look at the vegetable garden, and dream of summer’s bounty. I can already taste the sautéed zucchini slices I prepare with egg and matzo meal for summer dinners. I can almost feel the hairy leaves of the tomato plants against my arms as I reach deep into the vine to pick that perfect, bright red, plump tomato.

Well, those are my plans. As any gardener knows, disaster can be lurking right around the corner. The slugs could feast on my bean seedlings, wiping them out in a single night. Tomato hornworms could munch their way through a lot of tomato foliage before I find them. Or maybe the ever-browsing deer could decide that my garden is worth visiting after all.

Whatever lies ahead, I invite you to garden along with us this spring and summer. The Bee’s raised-bed vegetable garden, pictured here, is a mere 4-feet by 8-feet, but it’s planted it full of vegetables, including tomatoes, beans, romaine lettuce, chard and arrugula. I couldn’t resist adding a few flowers, so this one has marigolds growing around the vegetables like frilly skirts. As one crop matures and is taken out, we’ll plant another, and learn together about fertilizers, pests, crop rotation and more. If you’re new to vegetable gardening, why not build your own raised bed and garden along with us. If you’re an old hand in the vegetable garden, then feel free to offer advice or suggestions. To learn more about how to build a raised bed, where to site it and how to choose fertile soil to fill it, read the entire story at www.sacbee.com/hg and see Florence Low's wonderful photographs of the garden at an earlier stage.

While we all want boatloads of beautiful disease-free, picture-perfect produce, in the end it doesn’t really matter. Gardening is a journey, a process, and a learning experience. It should be fun. I’m hoping this gardening year is a memorable, bountiful one, but even if the garden is a dismal failure, I’ll still get excited when the weather turns to gardening, and I’ll try again next year.

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