So Many Plants, So Little Space

I’ve looked through all the seed catalogs and have started placing my orders, but like every year, my eyes are much bigger than my garden space. Besides the annual flowers I want to sprout, I want to leave a little room for a few new daylilies (I say “a few” every year but somehow that balloons into many more). I also have a list of perennials I want to get including some Butterfly Weeds to replace the beautiful ones I yanked out in a Japanese Beetle rage last summer. Of course I should have some climbing vines and a few herbs too, and the list just goes on and on. There’s not enough room in my little city lot for all the plants I would love to grow, so I have to make some tough choices.

This year I’m struggling with an overwhelming craving for vegetables. It happens to me every 3 or 4 years at seed-ordering time. Growing vegetables always sounds like a romantic idea in January when you would do anything to pop some fresh peas into your mouth or bite into a tomato warmed by the sun. But in the middle of winter it’s also easy to forget all the bugs and diseases you have to battle when you grow veggies. Besides, I like my garden to be an explosion of color and most vegetable plants are lacking in the looks department. Why waste the valuable space? The best argument against growing my own vegetables is that in this city you can barely walk down the street in the summer without stumbling into a farmer’s market. Why not let someone else deal with the Verticillum wilt and the flea beetles?

I’m usually able to talk myself out of delusions of vegetable grandeur, but this year I fear the nasty December weather messed with my head. I’ve already ordered quite a few vegetable seeds including nearly a dozen varieties of peppers and tomatoes alone. I have no idea where I will find room to plant them, but there’s no turning back now!