Home Duties Not Duly Appreciated

The authors of this volume, while they sympathize with every honest
effort to relieve the disabilities and sufferings of their sex, are
confident that the chief cause of these evils is the fact that the
honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated, that
women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for their
trades and professions, and that, as the consequence, family labor is
poorly done, poorly paid, and regarded as menial and disgraceful.

From the Introduction to American Woman's Home by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Garden Planning Thoughts

Although I have refused to do any outside work until March (I want to actually have winter!), I have been in the books and seed catalogs. I truly love vegetables and herbs, and flowers too. I like to look through catalogs. I take those from past years so that I don't have to return them when someone else wants to order. I can just look whenever I want to! Some of them are getting rather worn.

#1 In January I rotated my crops. My personal garden has several annual beds. Each bed contains herbs, flowers, and vegetables that do well together. So, I made a little map for this year's garden so I will know at a glance which things go in which bed this year. I've since lost the map. Surely it will turn up!

#2 I tried to grow eggplant last year. Using some old seed we had, I did get two plants, but eggplant is very vulnerable to bugs and I'm afraid they ate them up. I needed to be better prepared and more vigilant. I had decided to try again this year, but then . . . . I really want eggplant and I don't want to go by chance. I have requested that this be a regular garden crop grown by the whole family. Perhaps with newer seed we will get more plants ( I should hope so!), and if we use row covers they may avoid a bug attack.

#3 I've also requested fennel. Actually, that was dear Grandmother's request. I have never tasted fennel, although I would like to. She has tried it and likes it very much. This is the bulb fennel, not the herb.