Now that you are reaping your delicious rewards, you can also keep this in mind: the vegetable garden is a wonderful place to keep things messy. Sure, we all want our gardens to look as good as the ones created by the Barefoot Contessa and Martha Stewart, but like most things these perfect women do, it's unrealistic. Gardens are outside and outside is disorganized.
Glorious tomato plants don't care if they are in perfectly measured rows with matching cages; they just want a lot of hot sun and a little bit of water. Weeds are going to pop up in the most unlikely places and friendly little birds and bugs can't be eradicated in one fell swoop. Because of the heat and general summer laziness, I really don't feel like getting all the weeds out of my beds (which are made of old fence wood). My walkways really need to be mowed and my compost pile is really piling up. That's okay, my plants still grow and I don't want to stress too much about it.
It does make for wonderful peace of mind when your house, closets, vehicle and workspace are clean and organized, but I think once in a while you should have permission to be a little messy.
Photo courtesy of Magalie L'Abbé
