This morning as I crawled along in the hot sun weeding, my eight-month preggy belly weighed every move making me feel like a pot-bellied pig rooting in the dirt. It was at this moment I questioned whether I'd overdone it again this year garden-wise.

In winter, I'm gung ho for spring and dream of being super mom by supplying wholesome, fresh produce to my family. When all the seed catalogs hit the mailbox I get excited (too excited) and buy and plan like a fiend. It all seems harmless when the first indoor seeds get planted but by the time real outdoor work starts, reality sets in and generally reaches a climax by midsummer. It's hard work getting everything weeded, fed, watered and picked. Add in a toddler, fulltime work, a house to manage and late-term pregnancy and the garden starts to feel daunting--especially in the hottest days of summer when tomatoes, melons, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and squash produce nonstop.
 
It's easy to understand why so many of my fellow community gardeners at Bellevue State Park Community Garden are unencumbered, without school-age children, or retired. And admittedly I can't help feeling a twinge of jealousy seeing them relax under the trees in lawn chairs between weeding with cool drinks in hand, chatting about this year's crop of 'Big Boy' tomatoes or 'Dr. Martin's' Lima beans.
 
Trials aside, the work's got to get done, and I'm wayyy too proud to let my beds become total weed patches (I'm a professional gardener dammit! I can do this no matter what. Right?). So, that means early mornings and evenings watering, weeding, and picking because I'm NOT going out in the hot humid hell of the 2010 Delaware summer. And as long as I sprinkle a little BT on the kale for cabbage loopers and pick off the occasional Colorado potato beetle from my eggplants, I'm taking care of the pest problems. Right? (Ignore the yucky Mexican bean beetles and striped cucumber beetles.)

In my earlier blog about gardening while pregnant, I forgot to mention preggy gardeners should plant high and trellis anything trellisable. It's tough to bend down over and over to pick enough beans for supper (go pole!) or reach from one squash to the next. And, forget about leaving the garden with any semblance of cleanliness or dignity. Weeding means plopping down and scooting or crawling along from one weed to the next (the annoying garden scooty chairs for the compromised are no help).  Wielding a hose while so frontally girthy is also so disastrous I can't go in public after a garden session. One can't avoid muddy hose lashes across the front or everywhere else for that matter. Oh the things we learn.


My daughter provided levity when hot summer days were nearly unbearable. Here she's wearing her "garden clothes" complete with snow boots and PJ top.

On the plus side, my nearly 4--year-old daughter has been lots offun and a real garden help. Her favorite task is picking cherry tomatoesand the super cute, teeny tiny currant tomatoes (Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium ) aremost choice. Her ability to find coolgarden spots has also proven useful. The shaded, straw-lined alleecreated by our monstrous caged tomatoes is her refuge and has become mine too. It's a very pleasant place to sitand enjoy a cool drink from the sun. I'm also accomplishing my original goal of supplying garden fresh produce to my family. The tomatoes, squash and watermelons are going crazy this year. My plot is truly a green, fruity, junglicious wonderland.


A lush, healthy vegetable garden is enough to make the hard work worth it.

So, despite all the garden pitfalls of working mommyhood, and subsequent moaning, this year's garden been a triumph--just the fuel to respark the fervor when the the December winds blow and sunny seed catalogs hit the box. Let's see if I feel the same way by fall.