Perhaps some people want to live away from more secular places.
As far as doing a victory-type garden, I had one for years in my smallish (half acre) suburban lot. I religiously rototilled, planted, watered, fertilized, even had a compost heap. My reward for all this effort was the knowledge that I had opened a free salad bar for the deer and rabbits that practically overrun the wooded area that backs up on the houses on my cul-de-sac. St. Francis would have been thrilled, but I was less than charmed with Brother Rabbit, Sister Deer, and even worse, Cousin Skunk coming around to sample the Odile brunch buffet!
I ran chicken wire: The deer vaulted merrily over it. I installed security lights and tripwire activated sprinklers. The rabbits didn’t care. The skunks sometimes sprayed, making a lot of produce inedible. Last year was the final straw: My total yield from a thirty foot by thirty foot garden was seven tomatoes, three cucumbers, and a few handfuls of string beans! The four-legged marauders got all of the rest of it.
Since I live in a third ring suburb, there are local produce farms readily available to me, and I’m now a frequent flier at the farmers’ stands. It is nice to bring home non-nibbled vegetables and actually be able to eat, can, or freeze them, at a fraction of what I’d pay at the supermarket. Plus, the few bucks a week I spend at the farmers’ stands goes toward helping to sustain a family farm. I pick up my eggs and milk at the farm as well.
I just had two pallets of pavers delivered, and am installing a patio on the erstwhile garden site, with a soon-to-be purchased statue of the Sacred Heart. I’ll put in a couple of planters, leave some unpaved areas and plant them over with flowers, and have a nice little outdoor meditation place where I can relax, meditate, and pray in the warm weather months. And perhaps the lack of my little welfare state will drive the four legged freeloaders back into the woods where they belong.
Especially Cousin Skunk!
