I have always wanted to grow a
showpiece garden. As I drive around I see some gardens that are
beautiful and I get so envious but I know that to equal those gardens
would require a lot more than I am prepared to give at this stage of
my life. I do pretty good early in the season when all you have to
do is clear a bit of ground and drop a seed leaving the next step up
to God. It is later in the season when other things are trying to
grow in my garden and more of the responsibility for results falls on
me that the wheels begin to come off. I had an epiphany that the
garden is a pretty good metaphor for life. Things go along pretty
good as long as God is in charge but when we try to take over a bit
more then results become problematic. Like any metaphor you really
don't want to stretch it too far.
I struggled with the early garden. The
soil temperature comes up a bit more slowly here in the hollow so
getting stuff out in late February and early March just does not work
too good. I waited until April 15 which is the average last frost
date to plant. Even at that some stuff came along pretty good then
the temperature dropped and it rained for a couple of weeks. About
everything rotted in the ground so I got to plant again. It was
probably almost a month later before I got back in the groove and
began planting again. So, here we are at the first of June and I am
about a month behind. I have gotten salad stuff and some broccoli
and, of course, asparagus but nothing else.
I usually put out about fifty tomato
plants. I have about a dozen heirloom plants the chief among which
is my Brandywines. I seriously love those things. The remainder of
the crop is Better Boy which is a great canning tomato and we put up
a lot of tomatoes whole. I was accused once of not being able to
cook without tomatoes and my response was, “well, who would want
to?”
This year I ordered my pole beans from
the Sustainable Mountain Agriculture place over at Berea. I have put
out some NT half-runners, Margaret Best cut shorts, greasy beans and
some greasy cut-shorts. We have found that over the years that the
flavor has been bred out of the usual half-runners and we are
attempting to reclaim the joy of a bean that tastes good without
covering it with something. I don't grow bush beans because I don't
like to bend over to weed and pick them.
My zucchini and summer squash came up
only sporadically but I have a darned good volunteer crop of the
summer squash. I always plant too much of the stuff but who cares.
I have four short rows of corn and I will follow up with another four
rows depending, as usual, on my Jack Russel Terrier to harass any
critters such as racoons that would try to devastate the corn crop.
Last year I took the advice of the Evans' and bagged each ear after
pollination to try to defeat the Japanese beetles and worms. It
worked pretty good so I'll try that again. Knowing when the silks
have been pollinated is a bit of a guessing game for me but I am sure
that someone can fill me in on the proper timing.
I always like to try some different
stuff so this year I am growing some kohlrabi. I eat a lot of the
various cole crops so some variety will be welcome. We also put up
chopped bell peppers for cooking so I've got a dozen or so of them
out. You would be surprised how much chopped pepper that will
produce. I will plant a few jalapenos since they are not too hot and
have good flavor. I like to use them in my chow-chow that I have
been trying to get like my Grandma Emily's for most of my adult life.
She didn't use jalapenos but a few liberties shouldn't do too much
harm.
I have tried for a few years to do some
succession planting to assure a continuing supply of fresh cucumbers
but the heat of the summer doesn't contribute to making that an easy
job. But who knows, maybe it will work this time. I can go out into
the garden when it is in production and just graze. To look at me
you can tell that I also graze a considerable amount on other stuff
but I do love the fresh garden.
Brussels sprouts are best grown in the
fall as are the other cole crops but I set out some late this spring.
If you can get them producing you can harvest them into December
most years. Okra is another thing that I like to cook gumbos and
such with so I put out a row of them.
As the summer progresses and my job
that I use to make a living becomes more demanding the predictable
results happen in the garden. I get to the point of doing weeding
with the weed eater and this year I have one of those little
Troy-Bilt tillers that you can get between things so I'm hoping to
overcome some of the fruits of my non-labor.
And if all else fails I can rely on our
local farmer's markets. The Market on Main opens June 5th
and I intend to be there. Last year I bought a bunch of garlic bulbs
intending to set them out in the late fall as is directed but that
did not happen. I intend to try to do better this year. If I can
come up with a photo of the garden that I'm not embarrassed to share
I will post it for all to see. Otherwise I may just post a photo of
someone else's garden. As a matter of fact, why don’t you all send
in some photos of your gardens for everyone to admire along with your
gardening news and stories. See, another epiphany.
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