You Won't Get Veggies If You Don't Till The Soil

I think gardening is a lot like voting. Exactly like voting, actually.

It's not for weenies, for sure. It's not neat or tidy or perfect. There's muck to wade through that gets under the nails that is hard to clean out, and there's snakes and bugs and mice.  Gardeners deal with someone else's shit to mix the old with the new in the hopes that something good will come of it.

Gardeners think about the goal. They have learned how it works and their role in providing fertile soil, water, and sunlight for them to grow to be self supporting. Most gardeners don't garden in the dark behind closed doors. They rotate their crops, not because they want to but because if they don't the crops will fail.

Once the plants are in, things don't happen automatically. The plants need extra support and fertilizer when they are new. There's squirrels and birds that pick off the plants and crops that the gardeners are counting on. There's whiteflies and grubs and blight that can kill off the chance of success if left untreated.

The Garden is where all these lessons are taught. It is constantly changing and the Gardener has to adapt. Experience through the years has taught them that being informed makes them better, and offers them the best chance for success. 

Gardeners don't give up. They pool their years of learning and experimenting, and finally know their plants for what they are.  If a coastal artichoke plant can't take the heat of a valley summer, and they've already planted it, there's only two choices: move it under the shade of an olive and take on the responsibility to baby it along and mist it daily, or pull it out by the roots and plant something else.