An 18 day trip to the East coast found us spending four days with Alexis in the little college town of Northamption, Massachusetts. Northampton is an old town and the most impressive plantings are really the seemingly ancient trees that lucky for me were in their full regalia. Unlike the year round West coast gardens that I have come to be used to, here there is a definite "closing time" for the gardener. I guess it's this gardener's hibernation that makes East coast gardenistas really enthusiastic when spring hits. Not only do you see people outside in their shorts ( even if it is a little chilly for shorts) working their gardens but theses gardeners have had a long winter to consider their future plantings and in many cases start the seedlings in their windows as the melt begins. When Alexis had asked me to help her plant her Northampton garden, I had imagined a pastorial plot, that would have long rows of different vegtables. My greatest fear was where to get the hekp to do all the digguing it would require. It was a welcome surprise when I realized that Alexis garden would be a small patch in the front of her house that had great sun expsoure. The garden area, that was now quite overgrown, had at one time been a well watched and maintained area. Buried under years of dirt and that seasonal Western Massachusetts ice were brick borders and even a early version of weed control fabric. There were also some interesting plants that were either perennials or weeds and recalling Ralph Waldo Emerson's definition of a weed; "A plant whose Virtures have not yet been discovered," we plotted the tomatoes randomly around the long term inhabitants of the garden. Alexis had gone the route of starting her tomatos from seed, some thing that I have never done. Now, several weeks after the planting Alexis comments how her neighbors plants are looking robust even in the not hot enough climate, and her seedlings are dependant on applications of fish emulsion and TLC. This consternation will quell when at the end of the season all things are equal, and Alexis will have the sense of accomplishment of having nurtured this amazing fruit from seed and not a Home Depot Garden Center six-pack.
