Please Mr. Landscape Gardener, Make Me A vegetable Garden

Back in the day, if you wanted to grow veggies, all you needed was some vacant land, maybe a corner of the back yard, sun, access to water, usually a hose, something to till the soil, and seeds or seedlings and the sweat of your brow.

Now, all this can be yours by hiring someone to do it. You may pay $10,000 and up, but hey, it's only money. Today's newspaper, and sorry, but I can't recall if it was the WSJ or the Times had an article on wealthy folks hiring others to create their vegetable gardens and even raise their vegetables.

I wonder if these people's kids have whipping boys. Ooops! No one whips kids anymore, or at least not the kind of people who hire other people to grow their vegetables Are these the same folks who have quilting rooms and underwater sound systems for their swimming pools?

Seems to me that our government needs to raise taxes for some. They obviously have to much idle cash. Another article, maybe in the Times, listed the woes of those who have second homes and how hard it is to keep track of what's where, and the perils of leaving the computer, cell phone, mayonnaise, well, you name it at the other place. Ahhhhh. Woe is I!

Haven't any of these people ever heard of making a list? Oh, cripes, I forgot. They hire others to make their lists for them. Yeah, we all forget stuff. S.O. once packed for a weekend in Nantucket and forget his swim trunks. It happens. That's why god gave us stores. But I just can't feel too sympathetic. Yanno?

Off to make a crust to tomorrow's tart. I made the brisket with long, slow cooking in the oven, and a red pepper-feta dip for one of the appetizers. . Tomorrow I fill the tart shell with fresh berries and farmer cheese and whip up some stuffed mushrooms and fresh corn on the cob and we nip over to Bertucci's and pick up some brick oven rolls. Except for the rolls, I'm doing the cooking myself, not hiring it out, if you know what I mean. If we're lucky, there will be some cherry tomatoes that we grew ourselves. We did pay a family member to construct the planter boxes a few years ago. We have one for flowers and one for veggies. The heirloom beets look good. Tomatoes are awesome. And I did it myself.

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