More on Starting Seeds

Its been a few days since I first began starting seeds for the garden and I'm happy to say that they have already started to pop their heads out of the ground. If you click the image you can see the little green sprouts of broccoli and red onions starting to appear.

I've also gotten my first help with the garden. My friend K came over and helped out with the adding of some extra peat moss to the beds. We followed that up with the comparison of seed purchases and then enjoying some homemade BBQ. In the end I agreed to try and start some cabbage and leeks for the both of us which will find a home in one of the raised beds eventually.

Its been a post or two (I think) since I waxed philosophic about what it is I'm doing and I think this last meeting has some interesting parallels. BBQ and gardening have a great deal in common. Both take quite a chunk of time out of your day and both take a lot longer to do yourself than to pay someone else to do it for you. There are definitely people out there who are better at growing vegetables than I am and its a hell of a lot easier to go to the supermarket or even the farmers market and buy leeks or cabbage from them, just like its easier for me to walk down the street to the BBQ shack that makes some of the best ribs in Atlanta. But there is more to gardening and smoking meat than just the enjoyment of the end product.

Most obviously the end product that is produced is wholly yours. I may make mediocre to poor BBQ at times but damn it its MY BBQ, every time I smoke ribs they turn out slightly different and that difference is a change that I made. The same can be said for my garden. If I choose to plant cabbage in the same place I planted cabbage in the past two years and I get some horrible cabbage disease I know what caused it and I can appreciate my agency in the whole affair. This adds to the enjoyment of the finished product. I certainly enjoy my own ribs more than the far superior ribs from the shack down the street because I know the story of the ribs I'm eating.

Another benefit to growing your own vegetables and smoking your meat is the process. The whole act of growing vegetables or smoking meat is pleasurable and satisfying. While I'm digging in the garden or planting seeds I get to look at what I'm doing and appreciate the future consequences (the future is always rosy when gardening I've found). The same is true for smoking meat, or even cooking in general, just watching the changes take place in the food makes me anticipate that final moment more and, I imagine, makes the final product taste that much better. Process also has its own pleasures. I can't really garden while I'm doing contract work or watching TV. I have to go out to my garden, or sit in my kitchen with my seeds and work in the dirt. I have to take time and do some manual labor away from technology. In the garden there is no instant messaging or websites to distract, only the dirt and the occasional worm running away from your hoeing. As a programmer I find the lack of technology incredibly peaceful and I now find myself wishing I was digging in some dirt while I'm working.

The last frost for Atlanta (according to NOAA) is on April 10th, which means that the end of March marks the real beginning of gardening here. I'm itching to have whole days dedicated to working in the back yard with friends and a beer, having some ribs in the smoker and participating in some of the oldest arts that humanity knows.