The Garden. Refuge or Tether?

WHY GARDEN???

VEGETABLES! ALL YOU CAN EAT, PRESERVE or GIVE AWAY.

BERRIES! SMOOTHIES ALL WINTER. HEALTH!

FLOWERS! 

MORE FLOWERS! AND THE ATTENDANT BIRDS AND BEES.

MORE FLOWERS, AND THE ATTENDANT PK STANDING HIS GROUND.

THE BEAUTIFUL SIGHT OF PK WORKING.
Just kidding. He works all the time. Right there working on potatoes.

It is glorious spring and garden tasks are worming their way to the top of my to-do list, as they have for time immemorial—or at least most of the past 40 years. Since gardening is a family affair, PK is also engaged. Maybe "married" is a better word for his seasonal relationship with the seedlings, furrows, raised beds, fruit trees and, most recently, the pasture.

                                   PK at work with his seedlings in 2009.  

BUT WAIT! We've been pledging one another for the past few years to cut back on gardening. We've not succeeded, but we continue to natter about the errors inherent in continuing to live how we've lived for decades while our inner selves are stretching toward.....
s l o w e r 
s m a l l e r
l e s s  w o r k

Except for a sparse garlic crop the main garden is a blank slate. All that's there is compost, straw and 2013 kale and chard that will soon be removed. And weeds, of course. Could we just leave it alone for a year or two? Or cut in half?

At the same time, the universe whispers—or maybe it hisses:
G e t   o n   t h e   r o a d   b e f o r e   y o u   c a n 't.

At the same time that we're nattering and the universe is whispering, PK has this crazy-ass idea about raising livestock. Plus, he's already done a lot of the required preparation. Still, he'd have to build a barn for cows and pigs to come aboard, and I don't see any plans being drawn up.

Not that I don't relish the barn/livestock idea on a basic level. But I'd relish it a lot more if I was 40 rather than 69, and wanting to hit the road. We are devoted, almost slavish, gardeners and back-to-the-earth types but have slipped, somehow, into the last third of the human life span. We have places to go, things to do!

Where? What?

• The U.S.A. - PK's family lives in New Jersey, and we want to drive there to reconnect, visiting my family in Minnesota en route. Three months, at least, taking the southern route one direction and Canada/Minnesota the other. This is most likely first, as I could easily return home should my mom need me.
• Guatemala - to a remote mountainous area where a friend operates a non profit she founded 26 years ago, Adopt a Village Guatemala. We want to drive there in our Four Wheel camper and spend time helping with projects, tutoring, maybe teaching sustainable small-scale farming.
• South America - big target, I know, but PK really wants to see Colombia, and we'd both like to visit Peru and Ecuador. And maybe Brazil, after the World Cup craziness is over. And then perhaps Chile, where we might be able to connect with some Chris contacts.
• Kenya, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa - I LOVED Africa and want to return. 
• Morocco, Turkey, Bali, on it goes. 

Clearly, we can't go all these places and do all these things with an aggressive garden hogging our time and energy, or actual hogs rooting around in our dreams. I dare to think, however, that we may be taking control.

Signs of taking charge:

That's it, folks. Only four seedling flats this year. (So far.)

• Instead of a solarium window-wall filled with seed flats, we have only four,  three planted with 10 pepper varieties and one with four tomato types. This seems like a lot? But it is a serious curtailment.
• A plan is afoot to sow at least one, perhaps two, of our six garden rows with cover crops. 
• I'm lobbying for four eggplants rather than a dozen, fewer tomatoes, NO green beans, and just a few English cucumbers, crops that tend to have a greater percentage of being given away or wasted.
• No corn this year. 
• As usual, only a couple zucchini plants.

 However ...... Garden crops I can't do without:

• Basil
• Tomatoes
• Berries
• Peppers
• Cantaloupes
• Onions

I  must have onions! Lots of them.

• Herbs (dill, oregano, thyme)
• Greens -kale, spinach, lettuce etc.
• Flowers

Stop right there, Mary. That's a big garden of "can't do withouts."

Maybe what we'll have to do (starting next summer) is take a couple years OFF from gardening to travel. And if we shake the wanderlust, we can settle back into more modest production. And maybe even get a couple cows. And build a barn to keep them dry. Plus procure pigs to eat our excess produce. The pigs will want corn. We'll need some chickens to make manure......

Hopeless, right?

Here's a stretch: travelers looking at their garden in the rearview mirror.