The Art of Doing Stuff

1 week ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

Earlier this month I ate the last of the lettuce I’ve been growing indoors since January. It was my third harvest. And also the moment I realized I had started resenting it. Not for any reason in particular—just the fact that it was still there, being leafy. I planned to get rid of my never-ending tray of lettuce at the end of March after my second harvest. I was starting my seeds, thinking I'd need the space under the grow lights for more entertaining things like dahlias with drag names.

1 week ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

Those tulip and daffodil bulbs I planted last fall? Most of them bloomed. Some even looked like they were auditioning for a spring wedding centerpiece. Except for the two main pots. The ones with the bulk of my tulips. They dried up, shriveled, and died. Not from frost or squirrels or aphid attacks. Just me. Neglect is a powerful gardening tool if your goal is selective extinction. The tulip pots were on the porch, tucked just under the roofline where rain couldn’t get to them. I was watering them.

1 week ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

Every spring, I pull out a pile of gardening books and dump them on the coffee table. It’s part of the ritual. The stack changes a bit every year — some books are old standbys, others are new finds — but if they’re on the table, it means I’m flipping through them regularly, checking something, and eating potato chips. Like most hobbies, getting good at gardening, whether it's flowers or vegetables, takes practice.

2 weeks ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

This week I accidentally made the best hamburger of my life. But we’ll get to that, obviously. First, let’s talk about the asparagus. I’ve picked about six pounds so far. I don’t remember signing up for that much responsibility, but here we are. "About" 6 pounds which sounds more casual than six pounds exactly, but let’s be clear: I weighed it. Multiple times. Just to be sure I wasn’t hallucinating my productivity.

3 weeks ago | theartofdoingstuff.com | Karen Bertelsen

This is Queen Victoria. We in Canada are remembering the Mother of Confederation and celebrating her birthday today with the day off, BBQs (grilling to y’all), 2-4′s (cases of beer) and sparklers. I have a general idea, of what Victoria Day is - it's Queen Victoria’s birthday, yet it is never celebrated on the same day. We, in Canada, generally refer to Victoria Day as the May 24th long weekend, when in truth, it rarely falls on the 24th.