Tag Archives: gardening

How do I Garden? Let me count the ways…

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

1.

I toss aside the gloves and trowel in favor of digging deep into the hot soil with my bare hands.  This is how I really know what I am dealing with, how I really know the earth and I are in relational agreement about growing things.

2.

I ignore the hanging rake for smoothing the garden squares by hand, for a loving touch, an encouraging pat will make the plot ever-so-much-more fruitful.

3.

I embrace square-foot-gardening and all Mel-the-Man-himself has taught me about French-intensive gardening and nice neat little squares (4 lettuce to a 12″ x 12″, or 9 bush beans or 1 pepper plant per sqaure – I know the rules!) yet I place the seeds into my “back forty” gardens in curves or circles if I feel like it and I am not afraid to tuck radishes under the shade of a zuchini or okra if I feel the need, either.

4.

I plant in straw bales when I want more space and I name plants after my granbebes to avoid neglect of the sweet vegetables.  I must show love for their namessakes!

5.

I am partial to purple Petunias, if Petunias must be planted (and they must for they live in glorious flair all summer long) becasue, oh my, on the hottest days, they are so sweet in the air.  Mmmmm… seriously pungent and delightful!

6.

I make lots of lists about which things need done first and then totally ignore them, guided instead by a meandering trip through my garden, what calls to me first, who needs my attention today?  Hello little moss roses.  Are you waiting for your summer quarters to be prepared?  Well, I think there could not be a better afternoon to get on that!  The pole beans?  They can soak a bit longer in their cup.  They’ll be fine.

7.

I show undeserved mercy to certain weeds because they tap good resources far below.  But when they infringe, well, it cannot be tolerated.  I smile back at the dandelions, bright and yellow and so eager, and they have yet to be able to explain to me how they were not better known as dande-lambs, so gentle are they…

8.

I garden with my whole heart, for what is ever even worth doing in life at all if it isn’t with one’s entire and whole heart?

9.

I garden for the love…The love of fresh food and a good reason to sweat, for the love of my family who will benefit.

10.

I garden for the joy…The joy of seeing a bare space become fruitful, for the first grilled baby zuchini, for the fresh vine-ripened tomato that will hit my tongue with such tangy force I’ll nealry faint with happiness.

11.

I garden for the cool of the day walks with my Creator.  I hear Him ask, “Jeanie, where are you?”  I always know He is not asking for Himself, for He knows right where to find me.  But He wants to make sure I know where I am. 

There is dirt under my nails.  Sunscreen irritates my eyes.  I am red-faced and sweaty and it is nearly heaven.  Nearly.  Empty pots gathered near trays of flora are beckoning.  We will get to the next 8637 ways I garden another time…

She is Here!

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

The day arrives.

Today.  is.  Tomato Day.  2010.

And you pick red tomatoes and pop cherries into your mouth.  You gather baby zucchini from the garden while crunching on crispy green beans.  You bring in fresh broccoli and snap peas and lettuce.  You pinch thyme and sage and basil.  You grill just to the point of carmelization and the sweetness of the garden lunch makes all the work heretofore quite worth it.

The reward of my labors?  Today I picked ripe tomatoes.  Can you comprehend the profundity of that?  Dare you?

Good, and I mean really good, times.

NOTE TO MY LONGSUFFERIG READERS:  Last year at just about the exact same time?  Read here!

Albino in the Garden

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think,

I almost missed it, then I had no idea what the heck it was.  There, among the leaves, barely visible was this 13 or 14-inch long something-or-another.  It was situated sort of between the lemon cukes (small, pale yellow and round, with defined ridges) and the English cucumbers (dark green, very straight variety), but also near the zucchini and yellow straight-neck squash.

It was the palest green, almost white.  It was straight and ridged and extra long.

albino-zucchini-001

I wasn’t sure what I would find when I cut into it.  But it was just a very unique cucumber.  It was juicy and tender and just right for eating, despite its size (large ones often have very undesirable tough, bitter seeds in them).

I am not sure what has been going on out there under the leafy, vining covering, but there has been some mixing it up, for sure!

They just show up

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

I am a planner.

You carefully sketch and design your gardens and borders.  You plan for height and variety, texture and color.  You create walkways and growing areas, a border here, a berm there.

Early spring finds you growing seedlings on the window sill.  It takes such effort and exact science to make the small plants whole and healthy enough to finally be transplanted into the garden where they will grow to bring you joy and food for the season.

But for all the careful planning, for the pages of written plans saying eggplant will go in this square and a Japanese cucumber will go in that square and hmmm, let’s plant Nasturtiums here, there are the unexpected plants for which I did not account, the “volunteers.”

From out of nowhere.

There was a day I’d have pulled them all at first sighting, but now I don’t.  Now I see a Zinnia or a Marigold that has decided to grow in a crevice or between bricks or have just plopped themselves right in the middle of a walkway, and I give them their space.  Now I am glad they have upset my carefully laid plans and have just shown up, out of nowhere ~ a gift, a happy surprise.

flowers-113

The volunteers, sometimes flowers, sometimes a vegetable of some sort, while often getting a late start compared to the seedlings, ultimately catch up and are stronger and more established than the plants I’ve been coaxing, fawning over, encouraging to grow.  They are just there.  They just showed up, no work or toil.  Just there for the enjoyment.  They are divine blessings – an infusion of favor that I didn’t have to work hard to get, which makes them all the more delightful.  And cherished.

pictured: some “volunteer” zinnias I keep getting to cut and enjoy inside; they just keep producing blooms and I did not do one thing to deserve it…

The Garden Alphabet

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I admire poetic people, the ones who can express the deep feelings and thoughts of the soul with a new turn of a word or phrase.  I always wish I could do that, but I can’t.  If I could, I’d have written a thousand songs by now.  As it is, I can dream up the melodies, but I can’t get the words right.

But when I go to the garden in the early morning hours, my observations are downright Dr.-Seuss-like.  And they show up fast.  So today, sometime during the time I played in the dirt and pulled the weeds and watered the plants and argued with the spiders about territory and rights and got chased by wasps and picked the produce and swept the patio and plumped the pillows and drank some lemon water and de-weeded some pathway cracks, I observed this:

The purple petunias are pungent today, heavy and sweet with perfume.

The peppers are plenteous, parading in glory,  papilionaceous and pretty.

And it is not just that I have created 2 great entries for “P” for writing a children’s garden book (oh the dreams I harbor), but that those two things are perfectly and totally true today.  In my garden. 

purple-petunias colorful-ppeppers

images from google because I was just too lazy to take pictures…however, I have a lot more pepper varieties than this!

Tomato-Topsy

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Yes, that’s right.  It is June 25 and I am just now getting my fake-tomato-topsy-turvey-thing-a-ma-jig done.  I would recommend you do it earlier than this. 

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I bought a new 5-gallon paint bucket, some potting soil, and a Mountain Pride Tomato.  I don’t even know if it is determinate or indeterminate.  Guess I should read the little marker.

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We drilled a hole in the bottom of the bucket (about 2″).  We drilled a series of holes in the lid (I will water and feed through these holes).

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I removed almost all of the branches so the tomato plant could be “planted deeply” (is it still “deep” if it is upside down?).  Dave held the bucket and the suspended tomato root ball while I filled in with soil and vermiculite.  I sprinkled some granular fertilizer on top, which will work its’ way down through as I water.

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If I’d started with a smaller plant or not worried about going “deep,” I could have used less soil.  It is pretty heavy, so a strong hanger is in order. 

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Popped the lid on (it will even recieve rain!), and hung it about 6 1/2 feet up on the southeast corner of the house where it will get lots of hot sun.  It is almost directly above the tomatillo in the straw bale.  I surrounded it with some leftover bamboo shade I had hanging around for aesthetics.

I am truly afraid to face my neighbors. ;]

I would not expect to be eating fruit from this plant until mid-September at this late date.  But that is OK.  All the tomatoes in the straw bales are producing already and may need a break by then!

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Cost: bucket, $3.50; bracket for hanging, $6.99; tomato, $3.50 (could have gotten that cheaper at a local center); 3 gallons of potting soil (practically free from a Lowe’s clearance), $1.00…so since you can buy an “authentic” topsy-turvey for about $10, no $$ savings, BUT mine will withstand micro-bursts and looks better.  And that makes me happy enough.

I’ll try to give you updates.  We’ll see…

Early Bird

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

You know it is going to be an exquisite day, a day of sunshine and fruitfulness when the birds wake you up at half past four in the morning, already in full song, trumpeting God’s greatness.

  1. I have finished planting the straw bales (3 are dedicated to zucchini and summer squash; one has a paste tomato and a tomatillo; one is the holder of the watermelon seeds – getting a late start, but they are on the south side of the house, so hopefully the bale and the sun will help me out.  And the final two hold 4 unique and beautiful tomatoe plants.  I sunk them in on Monday and I have never seen such happy tomatoes.  Truly.  They are just plum delighted.)  Even the seeds I plopped in 6 days ago are sprouting very happily. 
  2. Dave is filling the pool.
  3. I have completed almost all of my potted plants (still have a few things to buy).
  4. I have planted more radishes and lettuce and peppers and beets (beets because of Dwight on The Office – more of a joke…hopefully we’ll actually find something good to do with them).
  5. I painted numbers 1-5 in white on the little black grand-bebe breakfast bar stools.  So cute.
  6. I painted my cherry end table black (which I have wanted to do forever!).
  7. I had lunch in the cool breezy shade with my amazing husband (who is tanning up nicely). 
  8. I sewed four new cushion covers for the patio chairs.
  9. I got sidetracked a lot.  And watched part of a crime show.
  10. I helped Dave a little with the swingset/play thing he is building the grand-bebes.
  11. Now I am off to birthday and celebration meal shop for Tredessa, who arrives home from vacation tomorrow.

Oh, that all days were as abundant…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Hang the “Our Father” prints, sew more cushion covers – tonight…??

Pretty good day so far…Jeanie