Gardening

I love my garden. When I am gardening, I think about my family. I remember my Great Uncle Otto, with his acres of vegetables. (I don't know how big his garden actually was, but I was little, and it seemed humongous). When we'd visit in the summer, we would get a tour of the garden as soon as we got out of the car. At least that's how I remember it. I mostly remember his corn...rows and rows, and my Great Aunt Elfie boiling a dozen ears per person for dinner. I remember the adults, my dad, his cousins, my mom, sitting on the back steps, shucking all that corn. I don't believe I'm exaggerating...it was 12 ears per person, right? I don't plant corn these days, but I do think of Uncle Otto when I am digging in the dirt, planting and harvesting.

I remember my Grandpa. He had a garden, too, out at the lake house, and I do remember spending time out there with him, but mostly I remember his flowers. Whether they were for himself or for my grandma or both, I remember hanging flowers, begonias, fuchsias (I think). I couldn't tell you if he really planted these specific flowers (I bet my mom will correct me), but when I saw those particular flowers in the greenhouse this spring, I just had to have them because they made me think of him.

I also think of my dad, with his electric deer fence protecting his precious tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, corn, etc. My dad takes any kids who are at the house out to the garden to pick whatever is ripe for dinner, and I remember H-Bomb eating whole ears of raw corn before he made it back to the house a summer or two ago.

I'm not sure why I remember the men in the family being gardeners. Are/were the women all the harvesters and cooks? Someone can tell me, I'm sure. That's just what I remember, what I think about. I'm sure they had a thousand little secret tricks for growing and gardening, and I don't know any of them. I wish I did.

I still get excited with each little plant that goes into my EarthBoxes.

I don't dig in the dirt so much, although this year I did replace the soil in all my EarthBoxes with new soil. So there was some digging. I used the old soil to make a couple new beds where I planted cabbages, melons, strawberries and some lavender. I moved all the EarthBoxes and their elevating cement blocks closer to the new fenceline. Now the tomatoes and peppers will get even more sun. Just wait and see how big they get this year!

I found a large black widow spider in one of the cement blocks, and smashed it with a rock. I have kids who play in the yard, after all.

After planting about 8 EarthBoxes worth of tomatoes and peppers, I noticed on the bags of Miracle Gro Garden Soil, which I've been using in my boxes for more than two years now, it says "Not for use in containers" or some such nonsense. It works just fine in my boxes. It also says to "wear gloves when working with this product." More nonsense. It's not like sat down and ate it with a spoon. I'm just going to stop reading these things and enjoy my garden as it grows. I'm sure my Grandpa and Uncle Otto would be proud.

Unexpected Harvest

On Sunday morning, CG informed us that she had ice on her trees, from where she had her sprinkler running all night long, and that her weather station said it had gotten down to 30 degrees during the night. She asked about our tomatoes. Our weather station, 1/10th mile away, said 36 degrees. And our tomatoes were fine. Peppers too. So honestly I didn't think much about it, and since Sunday was already scheduled as Salsa Day, I spent the morning making eight batches of salsa with all of our ripe tomatoes. I left the green tomatoes on the vines.

Sunday night, however, it FROZE for real. I awoke to our weather station registering a low of 26 degrees. Wilted tomato plants and pepper plants. I knew, after we got home from school today, we'd have to harvest every single vegetable in the garden.

We have yet to turn on the heaters in our house. We're just not ready for this kind of weather. I think I'm in denial.

Today, when we got home to school, I got to work. Wifey said all of her tomatoes, every last one, froze. She tried to bring some in the house, and they were just mush. She pulled up all her tomato plants and fed them, tomatoes and all, to the goats.

I harvested all the tomatoes that weren't mushy, and some that were. I am going to experiment with roasting them tonight into a batch or two of salsa. Roasting and salsifying tomatoes makes them mushy anyway, so I'm hopeful. We'll see. And I'll let you know.

I harvested all the peppers, even the teeny tiny ones that just didn't have enough of a chance to grow, and all the tomatillos. It seems like this is a very early freeze--it seems like I usually don't have to harvest EVERYTHING until at least the end of October, sometimes later.

We lost about half of our beautiful basil. I fed the blackened, wilted, frozen basil, stalks and all, to the goats. Another experiment: I moved the EarthBox of herbs (basil, Italian parsley, sage) in front of the windows in the addition. We'll see if they will last just a bit longer until I can at least make some pesto or dry some of the parsley. I don't see why they wouldn't last, as long as I write a note to myself about keeping the box watered.

Now I will need to monitor my bowls of tomatoes, gathering the ripest ones for salsa every couple of days. Did you know you can pick green tomatoes and they will ripen on the counter or in a bowl? I was happy to learn that several years ago--it really works!

So anyway. The salsa will continue until we are out of tomatoes...

I Never...

I have had these hens and chicks,
growing on a rock in our yard for several years now.

I have never seen them do this:

Have you?

Mine did it and CG's did it too.

They shot up those tall growths, and I suggested that they might be getting ready to flower.

Lo and behold, they flowered. Aren't they lovely?

It must be a very good year for hens and chicks. Or something.

Seriously, have you ever seen hens and chicks do this?

I want to know. Please tell me your experience.

On a Happier Note...

These are some flowers I stopped to pick in the mountains on the way home from town the other day. Wild blue irises, some little bluebells and some yellow flowers with which I'm not familiar. It was nice to get out in the woods for a little walk, and a deer even hopped out of my path!

When I got home I put them in a mixture from one of my books, 2 tablespoons sugar, 2 tablespoons vinegar to 1 quart room temperature water. It perked them right up! And they've been beautifying my kitchen counter for days now.

Post Script: The vinegar also served another purpose. While it was in there, feeding the flowers, it was also cleaning the hard water mineral deposits from the inside of my vase. The thing looks new, and I didn't even have to scrub it!