In my sun-starved garden, I have room for either flowers or vegetables, not both. For years, I've given my gardens over to flowers and bought my veggies at the local farmers market.
But, like lots of flower gardeners -- and even people who've never dug in the dirt before -- I've caught the grow-your-own bug. I can't get enough salad greens. And if I could, I'd eat cucumbers every day. And while it's a treat to cut peonies from my side yard and make bouquets of the coneflowers in the boulevard, I get a real burst of pride serving my own tomatoes (no matter how small) or making jelly from my own grapes.
So that means I've been ripping out perennials and plunking in vegetables. As a practice, it has its plusses and minuses. So far, I haven't removed any plants I really love. I've been able to sacrifice flowers that weren't performing all that well. And that has helped my garden.
But as a newbie vegetable gardener, I can't get over how bare the garden looks early in the season. I've always been one to pack perennials in. I like the look of thick, lush growth and the wild contrast of textures and colors. But with vegetables, you have to leave room. (This I've learned from experience. Ask me about the smallest bell pepper plant known to man.)
Bare space in a garden has always seemed risky to me. It's like you're hanging your hopes out there for everyone to see. That bare space says you're certain that healthy robust veggies are coming soon. But the worrier in me says, what if they're not?
My perennial flowers, on the other hand, don't dawdle in the spring. Withouth any help from me, they've been soaking up the rain, reveling in the cooler temps and growing fat and sassy.
As I mulch around my tiny tomatoes and put climbing cages for cucumbers so small that it's hard to distinguish them from the weeds, i try to have a vegetable gardener's faith. I try to banish blossom-end rot and squash vine borer from my mind and think only of BLTs and homemade pickles. And I eye the next-worst perennial in my garden.
Hmmm. Wouldn't the space where that dianthus is growing be the perfect place to plant an eggplant?
