I don’t always garden like I should. I’m too economical with both time and money.

• I attempted to prune my tomatoes this year. It lasted about a week and then I could care less. Research doesn’t necessarily support pruning anyway.
• My garden is weedy. I love black plastic mulch and couldn’t dream of gardening without it. I don’t mind weeding, but eradicating weeds is also not high on my fun list.
• Except when you buy new tools like a Hori Hori and a winged weeder. Than weeding takes on a new amount of funness, although I’m not even close to a weed free garden. In my defense, I’m pretty sure there are weed seeds in the irrigation water, and the space hasn’t been properly gardened for years: there is a good seed bank to battle against.
• Oh, and I could never fully convert to organic gardening. I like glyphosate. The weed patch mentioned in preceding posts is now a dry weed graveyard. Combine a well timed application of round-up, high temperatures, and no water, and the only thing hanging on is a couple of bindweed plants.
• In the front I planted some ornamental grasses. They look good, but lack a filler to combine them all together: portulaca, lobelia, some showy annual that makes you stop and look. I did seed some flowers in there, to see how they would do. Seeds are cheap, or in this case free since I had a bunch of random flower seeds on hand. Next time I think I’ll stick to transplants. I can seed vegetables fine, but they only time I have had success seeding flowers is in containers.
• I can justify the expense of a large vegetable garden: but I find it harder to spend a bunch of money on flowers. I might if I had a permanent garden I could put perennials into, but with a rental it is not going to happen.

I want a garden I can go out and enjoy, and if I don’t feel like working I don’t. My garden is never perfect: it is simply good enough. And good enough right now at least means zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and snap peas.