Cutting back on the Garden so we can GROW

The seed catalogs have begun to pour in, and I am poring over them, loving the photos and descriptions. But I'm not buying much, if anything at all.

This spring and summer, I don't plan to have a vegetable garden. I may hide a few plants here and there in the rest of my gardens if I can't completely restrain myself, but the veggie plot itself is being planted over with grass in March.

Shocked? Surprised? Wondering what on earth I am thinking?

Well, the reasons are many.

1. The soil in my garden has been severely compromised by last year's fungal blight that rocked the Northeast US. It affected my beans, tomatoes and potatoes, and that soil will be infected for about 3 years they say, and I can't grow those crops during that time.

2. We have a baby coming in oh, a week or two, and plan to put the house on the market in the Spring after we do some final fix-ups. This means I should be spennding time beautifying the flower gardens and rest of the house/yard, not the veggies... While I love my veggie garden, it is not particularly attractive.

3. Last summer with the constant rain and being in the first trimester of pregnancy, I did almost no weeding on our property, which turned into a jungle. I have major work to catch up on to make it nice again.

4. We have more veggies than we can eat coming in from our organic CSA, plenty to can and eat. A veggie garden of my own is a fun and provides more to can and dry, but is not totally necessary.

5. Hopefully the house will sell quickly, which would mean we wouldn't get to reap our harvest anyways.

6. Mainly, I'm forgoing the garden this year with an eye to the future: next year, and for years to come, I hope to be living somewhere that I can plant the full garden I want, have the farm animals I want, and live the dream :)