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FORT McMURRAY -- I am often asked if I find my garden to be a lot of work. My answer is always that I find my garden to be less work than cutting the lawn on a weekly basis.
That's not to say there isn't a lot of work and time involved in growing a garden.
Probably the biggest job is preparing the soil in the fall.
When all the crops have been harvested, I spade up the soil and leave it in loose clumps for the weather to break it down and allow for deeper air circulation.
When spading in the fall, I also dig in any composted vegetation and grass clippings that have been collected during the summer, as this helps to improve the organic material in the soil.
In early spring, it is amazing how easily the clumps can be raked smooth and the garden made ready for planting. And because the soil is more porous, it dries out quickly, allowing me to plant much earlier in the spring.
I also rake in some granular fertilizer at planting time. This spring I used a slow-release garden fertilizer, which seems to work very well.
After a few weeks, when the vegetables are growing well and the weeds are also visible, it takes me just a couple of hours to hoe and pick out the weeds from among the rows.
The first flush of growth is when the weeds are the thickest. Then I just have to occasionally pull out a weed here and there as they appear throughout the growing season.
Compared to what it takes to maintain a lawn -- fertilizing, weeding, watering and cutting -- my vegetable garden seems to take a lot less time and we reap the benefits of many tasty, wholesome meals.
I have never been a fan of lawns. To me they are a huge waste of space that require a lot of time and effort to maintain.
Nothing ruins a landscape faster than a weedy, patchy, neglected lawn.