Gardening Weekend.

I had an easy weekend. I jammed a bit with my neighbor, and spent some time in the yard.

Normally by now, I'd have my gardens ripped up, and I'd be snagging leaves from the neighbor's, and getting them tilled in.

This year, I looked at my weed patch that is dotted with a mix of healthy tomatoes, peppers and basil, and I wasn't sure what to do.

My wife had some input. Touch my tomatoes and die!

It is mid-November and I have big beefsteak tomatoes still growing!

I ended up weeding and tilling around the plants. It is late in the season, but I went ahead and threw in a variety of lettuce and cabbage seeds. In what used to be a normal winter, these are plants that grow well. I've had lettuce and cabbage under three inches of snow, thaw out unfazed.

This year, it is still in the 70s. There is no sign we'll get a freeze anytime soon. They may just sprout and do fine.

My winter wheat is nearly a foot high. Irene says that's the dumbest thing I've planted yet. She's probably right. There is no way I can grow it cheaper than I can buy it. Without government subsidies, I can't compete with an industry that sells below cost, in order to keep third world nations impoverished.

Even as I write this, I'm reminded that during Perestroika, fresh bread and staples such as flour and sugar, were hard to come by. There is no way I can grow enough food on my plot to sustain us, but that isn't the point. Having something to fall back on, when the store is out of what you need, is the point. And that is how the Russian people recovered from Perestroika. They grew what they couldn't buy.

Last year, we were eating artichokes twice a week. It seemed like a sinful indulgement, considering how expensive they are in Texas supermarkets. But not for us. I just walked out to the front yard and picked them when they were ready.

This next year, we'll be pigging out on fresh asparagus and artichokes!