at last!

You know that expression: the cobblers kids go barefoot?

People say to me, "Your garden must be great." "We want to see your garden." "I'm sure your garden is perfect." Umm...no. Think about it: the last thing I want to do after a long week of sweating on the rooftops of NYC is sweat in my own garden. I'm proud of my work and I'll show my clients' gardens to anyone. But I don't usually have the time or energy to make my own small plot look presentable.

This year I swore things would be different. I even cut back on my clients so I wouldn't feel too exhausted to garden on the weekends. And it's worked! My garden looks pretty damn good. There's still plenty of stuff to be done, but absolutely nothing to apologize for. And to top it all off: this year, for the first time EVER, Michael and I hooked up drip irrigation to our container tomatoes.

It was so simple, I can't believe we've never done it before. And it should really improve our harvest. Tomatoes can suffer from bottom blossom rot when their water is irregular, and since we'll be away at the end of the month we'd risk losing our crop if we didn't automate the irrigation (or get regular rain). We didn't have to buy a single piece of equipment. It was all leftover from various client jobs and the garden we had on 2nd Avenue, many moons ago. Each tomato pot got a 1 gallon dripper, and I even remembered how to programmed the water computer!

Such a little thing, and such a big sense of accomplishment. When the tomatoes start coming in, I'll stop patting myself on the back just long enough to eat.