Someone called me “thrifty” for the first time in my life

About eight weeks ago I planted my first successful vegetable garden in LA, and have been so delighted with the results that I asked for seeds for my favorite root veggies for Christmas. The lettuces in the box in the backyard are growing like gangbusters. For someone who previously couldn’t grow anything in LA other than a succulent, this blows my mind.

My friend Libby’s grandmother saw photos of my garden on social media and her response was, “How thrifty of you, Corey!”

This made me pause. Am I thrifty? Is that a good thing?

What happened to the word “thrifty”? Folks don’t use this word anymore. I blame the 80’s. It became so uncool to be thrifty. In the 70’s I remember my parents fixed things that were broken. In the 80’s we chucked whatever didn’t work, and bought a new one. Why is that? Cheaper goods? Reagan? Anyhow, it stuck and that’s been my approach to stuff ever since.

It took a beat to take in “thrifty” as a word to describe me. My grandma R, who darned her pantyhose, was thrifty. Since I’ve never darned a sock or anything else for that matter, I was certain I hadn’t earned the word. When you think about it, thrifty is a really friendly word from another era. And since it came from a woman 30 years older than me, I warmed to it and took it as a compliment.

Now the winter garden is in full swing, and I’m getting ready to plant my radishes, carrots, beets and a second wave of lettuce. I know it’s just nature happening in the backyard, but to me it’s a miracle we have free greens for dinner – a choice of arugula, kale, chard and a mesclun mix. Soon the peas will be ready. It’s been so successful I want to keep it going until summer, when it will be too hot and dry in LA to grow anything.

Plus, it’s easy to plant seeds. All I have to do is water for roughly 10 minutes each morning. Now that the seedlings are grown, the garden doesn’t freak out if I miss a day of watering. Why did I used to think I didn’t have the time to do this? I can totally see myself keeping this going once I have a job. Not because I’m amazing, but because any one of us could.

A packet of seeds costs about a buck and a half, and reaps food for weeks.

I’m thrifty you guys!