the garden files 2008

The future of gardening at my household barely survived the harsh judgment of Agent Wife. That was, "Why continue? Its output is always pathetic," or something like that.

For some time I wanted to move our gardening spot from the sun-scorched north side of our backyard to the more shaded and fruitful-looking south side.

I did the necessary work transferring the fence and tilling back in March. So far, this move appears to be paying off.

After six seasons of trial and error, this is the best start to a gardening season I've had yet. Even the seedlings that Agent Wife and the kids planted in egg containers transferred very well.

For two to three seasons, I have maintained both mine and Obi-Wan's garden simultaneously. Often they were both planted within a day from each other, maintained on the exact same schedule, and even planted with seeds and plants from the exact same source. But Obi-Wan's land always fared better than mine.

So, this new gardening location of mine is modeled after Obi-Wan's: shaded throughout the day by a pecan tree and protected from the brutal western sun by a building. The only thing different now is the actual soil. But so far, my garden seems to have a better start than his...

Maybe this is all symbolic. Obi-Wan has taught me everything I know about gardening. I am the young padawan learner that is slowly starting to outperform his aging master.

Only time will tell.