Gardening in Simplicity

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to the first West Seattle Edible Garden Fair at South Seattle Community College. They had hour-long presentations about growing food in our homes. I chose 2 of them to go to, one on tips and techniques for growing great-tasting vegetables by Willi Galloway who has a food blog at http://www.digginfood.com/ and another on container gardening given by The ShibaGuyz: Shannon & Jason Mullet-Bowlsby who have blogs at http://shibaguyz.com, http://lazylocavores.com and http://urbanfarmingproject.com/ Both were very informative, but it was such a difference in presentation and philosophy of gardening. Willi gave us a very typical-sounding gardening presentation about additives to the soil and making sure things are in perfect rows with the exact amount of space between, and some stuff I didn't know about the things that affect the taste of vegetables and fruit as they're growing. So then we go to hear these two guys (Shannon and Jason) talk about their container gardens, and it was absolutely hysterical and laid back. They call themselves the Lazy Locavores. They dumpster drive for containers to plant in - nothing is unable to plant in, like Tupperware, chinese take-out containers, etc. They said nothing grows in rows in nature, so why should we? And they said last year they grew 800 pounds of tomatoes in their 15 x 15 townhome backyard here in West Seattle. I am very much like the ShibaGuyz/LazyLocavores - if it ain't easy, I ain't doing it. I work full time, I've got a full life, and I want to grow vegetables. I am not going to spend my time studying and reading about the correct things to do with vegetables and additives, etc., etc. Everything gets the same treatment - soil, compost, organic veggie fertilizer when it's growing, and then I water them daily. They die? I don't plant it again. Easy peasy. Might I have a "better" garden if I cared to do more? I don't know. Not gonna find out - LOL! So last night I had my first garden casualty of the season. Well, I've been struggling with my romaine since I planted it a month ago, but that wasn't a total casualty. Last night it was the cauliflower. I've noticed the past week or so that after growing so strong and big in the container (similar to the broccoli) it started looking wilted even when it had adequate water. Then I started noticing that the leaves had big holes in them. I turned the leaves over, and they had these bugs (I assume they were bugs) that looked like little white specks. Almost microscopic. I thought about grabbing a gardening book and figuring it out. I refuse to use pesticides, and I had heard about using soap for killing bugs, but then also heard downfalls of that too (anecdotally - never tried it) and then I said you know what? I want simplicity. This is not simple if I have to diagnose and figure this out. And I don't want my surrounding plants to get whatever that was. So I decided it was a goner. Pulled it over to the yard waste bin and tossed the entire thing. I'll admit I felt bad. Felt a little like a failure and a defeat. Felt like murder too in a way. But I really need to embrace simplicity. Doing anything else wouldn't be simple. I'm going away on an unexpected trip in 4 days and lots to do before then. Honestly, this was the best solution for now. The rest of the garden, for all my laziness, looks to be doing well. The broccoli has honest-to-goodness broccoli florets on it - one is getting pretty big and probably ready to be harvested by the time I get back from my trip. My husband has already partaken of the scallops - my goodness, the place reeked of onion smell when he used them! :) The fennel is GORGEOUS - everyone should grow fennel even if they won't eat it. :) It's just so feathery and beautiful to look at. One of the tomato plants we bought at the Edible Garden Fair was grown in a hothouse and already was large and had blooms on it (Red Zebra variety), and I noticed it has 3 tomatoes starting to grow from the blooms! We had a strawberry from our new plant that was SO close to being ripe, but a bird beat us to it - LOL! The blueberries have beautiful flowers on them - I never thought about how blueberries actually grew before. So despite the failure of the cauliflower, I do feel optimistic about my lazy garden. And glad that it remains simple and doesn't stress my already stressful-enough life. Even if I have to murder cauliflower. :)