My Little Black Book

Reader Contribution by Lois Hoffman
Published on October 9, 2020
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Photo by Unsplash/Noémi Macavei-Katócz

I have a little black book and I wouldn’t want to get by without it. No, it’s not filled with past suitors or hush-hush phone numbers. It is filled with something much more important than that.

My little black book, which is actually blue instead of black, is filled with tons (literally) of little facts and observations about my garden from past years. You all know that gardening is my happy place and I would not have the success I have had without the info in that book.

Every year I try new plant varieties, new techniques, new planting schemes, etc. Some have been great successes and others, well, not so great. Good or bad, they all go in the book. This is how I improve, raise better crops, increase yield, gain a few strides ahead of the pests and am reminded of my flops.

Sure, during the growing season every little detail that I want to remember is crystal clear and, even though I am sure I will remember, well you know how that goes.

Along about March when the weather begins to break, I have literally been a couch potato for the past two months. I go through the same routine every year. I think maybe this will be the year that I won’t do a garden, it is a lot of work and the idea of getting back into the swing of things is pretty daunting and my muscles will groan all over again. But then, as I pick up the seed catalogs again, the enthusiasm comes back. Of course, it is then that I am hard pressed to remember what crop rotation I used the year before, and the year before that and the year before that and so on.

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