Vestiges

I picked the last of the Christmas pole beans last week, right before the weather drop and frost claimed the vines. Didn't quite make it to "Christmas," but late November isn't too bad. Combined with a few straggling green onions, they made a nice pot of ham and beans. The beans seeds themselves are huge - as you can see, three of them take up most of my palm. More nutrition and protein "bang" for my small growing area "buck." They also require zero care. I find that attractive in a vegetable.

Left climbing

My garden is pretty much uprooted. It's time. It was a modest gardening year - nothing spectacular but enough fresh food for the table. I had a good harvest of...whatever these are. They are some sort of large decorative gourd - they range in size from 8 -14 inches.

The only plants left climbing are Christmas pole beans, cherry tomatoes and licorice basil.

I am always ready for the seasons to turn.

Monkey business in the garden

I have had another couple of "down days" with a milk duct infection - so a garden update will be about all that I have time for today.  :)  Nothing big to say, just a few pictures.  I think that I spend more time in my parents' garden than in my own - and that's okay.  They do a better job than me, anyway.  :)  Boy, has it been hot out there.   The corn and beans just love the heat, though.

The picture above is from last year.  That's "business monkey."  (I have no idea why he is named that.  He just is.  And he likes to lie around in my tomatoes.  Oh wait!  It just came to me.  Maybe they were doing a play on words...."monkey business," to "business monkey."  Ha Ha!)

Sometimes, bad things happen to business monkey.  What can I say?  This is how I found him.

Here's a funny vine that is growing from my compost pile.  I have no idea what it is.  It's either a butternut OR a strange gourd.  Time will tell.

 
It's taking over my clothesline.

And Jeff's ladder, too.  :)

Here's a sample picture of my "urban gardening."  (I must note that my town is not big enough to call a city.  But still, I garden in small spaces.)  In this small plot I have broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, butternut squash, moon flowers, and four o'clocks.  The vining items are in the back, and I have rigged strings from the top of the fence downward.  The strings are held in the ground with stick pegs.  My vines are soooo happy to have something to help them climb up the fence.  The fence is also useful, because I can provide direct support to the tomato plants.  When one tomato branch gets "wild," or loaded with tomatoes, I gently tie it up to the fence.  It cuts down on the amount of tomato cages I need.

Yes, my veggies are crowded....I like to call my method "close companion gardening," but it works.  Maybe if I get them close enough, they'll go ahead and make themselves into salsa.  :)

Here's the other side of the fence.  First, there were peas planted here.  Now, there are tomatoes, Christmas pole beans, broccoli, and celery.  The poles are from my Dad.  He has a nice patch of bamboo at his farm.  He keeps me in sturdy garden poles.  This side of the garden only has about 12 inches of soil (width) for growing, so it is a skinny little patch.

So there you have it.  Gardening.  Not a scintillating nor controversial topic.  But you know, some of my favorite blogs to read are those that leave me with a sense of peacefulness. Wishing you God's peace....

This post is connected to Smockity Frock's weekly gardening post.

Humility in the Garden

I was feeling pretty good about my ability to grow things in my "kitchen garden," but after picking green beans from my mother's vines this morning I was reminded of the need for a bit of humility in gardening.

With gardening, as with everything else in life,

there is always, always, always

more to learn.

My mother's bean plants put mine to shame.  Mom was gone for the day and as we were coming over to trim the lawn, she asked me to pick two rows of beans for her.  She was planning to give them to me so that I could can them - which is what I am doing tonight.  The canner is steaming along and I'm checking it every few minutes.

I thought my beans were fine until I inspected hers and was swiftly knocked down several notches on the green thumb scale.  Nothing will take a whipper-snapper gardener down like a comparison stroll thru the okra.  I came home with a five gallon bucket full of beans from two small rows.  Her beans must be on steroids.

It takes time and practice to accumulate knowledge about growing your own food.  I am so blessed to have older people in my life who not only teach me, but who patiently remind me of what I am doing wrong.  Every time my mother gives me a start of this or a slip of that, she reminds me of how to care for it.  She tells me what kind of sun, what kind of soil, when to pinch it back or tie it up, to dig it in the fall or leave it in the ground.  My father brought me some tomato cages last week, and he took the time to show me how to spread the wires and angle it properly in the ground.  I could get offended at that, I suppose:  "Do they think I don't remember?  I know that already...."  I realize that someday I will wish they were here to tell me again.  And maybe, if they do repeat it enough, it will slowly sink in and become systemic for me, and I won't even have to think through the gardening cycle.  Someday, if I work at it hard enough, I may be a natural.

I listen to my parents, I listen to the guy at the market stand, I listen to my gardening friends who do a much better job than I do, and I love to talk to Joe at the Flower Shop (which also sells garden seeds/ supplies.)  I never want to leave without finding out what secret they have for me today.

My papa keeps his garden weed-free.  There's no greater gardening sin to my parents than a garden that is left untended, weeds run amuck.  A weedy garden says something about the gardener, to them.  "Not sure I can trust a man with a weedy garden."   I always grab a hoe when they are headed to my house.  I get the biggest chunks and hope that they don't look too closely.  

Once in awhile my dad lets words slip out.  He told me the other day that now, at 86, he has gotten to the point of pulling his weeds on his hands and knees - by crawling thru the garden.  "I'm sure the neighbors wonder what I'm doing out there...."  to which I replied, "It's possible.  But whatever you are doing, it sure is working."  He'll garden until he dies, and that's the kind of person who has a million things to teach me.  It makes us a perfect fit, because I will always have a million things to learn.

Humility in the garden and elsewhere reminds me that there is always, always, always more to learn.

This post is linked to Smockity Frock's weekly gardening series.

Guerilla gardening: Zero cost, minimum care

This gardening post is about my less-than-traditional gardening experiments this year.  I've been interested in gardening methods that 1) save time, 2) take up little space and 3) are basically free to implement.  I do admit that my methods won't win any Lawn or Garden Beauty awards, but fortunately I have a portion of my yard which is enclosed by an old wooden fence.  I am able to keep my experimental ugly gardening private from my neighbors.  :)

I like to try new things and new methods every year.  Gardening is somewhat indigenous and systemic.  I mean, weeds can grow anywhere, right?  Gardening is also a learning process, though.  The best advice I can give someone is to not get discouraged, to just try again.  There really *is* a style and a method for everyone.  Sometimes, you just have to learn what works for you and your climate (zone) and what needs to be planted when.  The biggest mistakes that people make is planting early crops too late and late crops too early or planting their veggies in the wrong location all together.  They think they or their soil has failed them when really, it's usually just a matter of the wrong plants being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  :)  If you have made this mistake (like I have many times,) don't give up.  Just make a note of it and try something different the following year (or maybe even later in the same year.)

One thing that frustrates me with Garden Planning Books or Websites is that they make it seem too hard or too expensive to garden.  Raised beds don't actually have to be made out of specific lumber, ya know?  You don't have to have a specific soil mix, either.  Over time, you can build your own super soil by maintaining a compost pile.  Yes, it takes a year or so, but if you're in it for the long haul it is worth it.  There is something deeply satisfying about building up your soil year after year, about experiencing better yields over time simply by throwing your vegetable scraps and lawn scraps on a pile and turning it once in awhile.  I love building something from nothing and becoming tuned into the rhythms of the seasons.  I feel like it makes me a more stable person, invested in longevity and sticking with something to see the end result.

I'll say it again....the pictures below are not really pretty gardening.  I LIKE luscious looking garden pictures, but the point I'm playing around with this year are alternative gardening methods.  There are many people around the world who could benefit from growing at least a portion of their own healthy food - and they don't have the money to invest in *any* gardening supplies.  They need to use whatever they can scavenge or what they already have on hand.  Can you grow butternut squash in a box?  Why yes, you can!  You can also grow potatoes in a box...well, let me show you some of what I've got growing in my back yard:

This vine (and his siblings) are growing on my compost pile.  I keep two compost piles - it's nice to be able to flip compost back and forth to keep the mixture at the right level of moisture, decomposition, etc.  This year, I had some cantaloupe pop up in the top of one pile.  It's nestled in amongst the shredded paper, dried grass clippings, etc.  Since I've got two piles, I'm able to leave this one alone and let this plant and others like it go wild in a very fertile environment.  No boxes, no special mix, no....nothing.

Here's my butternut squash.  This picture was taken last week, but as of today there are about 6 vines about 4 inches tall.  It's just what it looks like.  A box, filled from my compost pile.  A box can be moved around to hit the best patch of sunlight, until I figure out where it seems to do best.  And then, as the vines grow and spill over the edge, the box will decompose and it won't even be visible.  Will six butternut vines really help me feed my family?  Yes....I could get up to 30 or more gourds from these, if past experience is a guide.  I'll keep them in my cellar and use them throughout the fall and winter.  If this method does well, I will plant more next year.

Rats.  I had a picture of my potatoes growing in a tall box - but the picture is turned sideways and I don't have time to convert it...

Instead, here is another batch of potatoes that I have growing in a pile, surrounded by bricks.  These potatoes were from a bag that started to get "leggy" this spring.  Rather than throw them out, I planted them.  Often the potatoes from the grocery store are sprayed with growth inhibitor, but these evidently were not.  I started with a tiny hill of compost, then put the potatoes (cut into pieces) all over the top.  I did not space them - they are kind of crowded and jumbled.  I took the least care that I could, because I wanted to prove that anyone can grow anything cheaply, if the conditions are right.

I covered the potatoes, then as they grew green leaves I kept covering them, higher and higher.  I surrounded the area with bricks (that were already here...) to contain it a bit - but you can use a box, a stack of tires, a wooden frame, a barrel, anything really, as long as it has drain holes.  I'm still covering the new growth every few days with a bit of straw, compost and dirt, and I will do so until they flower.  I'll let the stalks die completely down, and then I can begin harvesting some potatoes.

Trying new things is one thing that keeps gardening fun for me - I hope you've enjoyed it too and have learned something along with me.  Life is all about learning and growing and adapting and starting all over again based upon what you learned previously.  Don't be afraid to try new and unorthodox things.

Keep on learning, and keep on growing.  :)

This post is linked in with Connie's Gardening series

Myself as the Reluctant Gardener

 

And so it has begun again - my ongoing love/hate relationship with gardening.  

When I was a child I was aggravated to no end by the endless pulling of weeds and watering of beans.  Beyond that, the picking, the snapping, the canning and the freezing, the dehydrating - it all seemed endless from May thru October.  Even the winter months were consumed with something harvest related:  dried beans to hull, popcorn to roll off the cob with red, roughened hands, nuts to be coaxed from their shells.  My parents were gardeners extraordinaire - they still are - and along with the heirloom standbys they "adventured" every year in the soil.  Peanuts, mung beans, Jerusalem artichokes, loofah sponges...a few exotic species annually just for the fun of trying something new.  And still, this week, at 86 and 6 months out from a broken hip, my father will pull out his tiller and churn the dirt in an effort to fulfill the perpetual pull of spring on a gardener's heart.  We offered to help, but he will have nothing of it.  It's his garden; ground that has been stewarded by his family since 1914.  I suspect that he will turn it over until he, himself, is called to rest.

Pecans, Walnuts, Hickory nuts to be picked out.  Winter's harvest work.

I don't have an actual "love" for gardening like that; but I do have the genetic pull.  I can't help it.  If there is soil, I am compelled to "grow" things.  I know how...it's how I spent my childhood and although I swore then that I'd never garden once I reached independence, it's how I've spent over 20 years of married life.  It would just seem wrong to know how to grow things and not do it.  Let's just say I'm genetically predisposed.

Ben, eating peas.

 So, right now, the peas and bok choy and romaine and spinach are calling my name.  I don't start seeds indoors, and I don't generally purchase plants already started from the gardening store.  (Although I have, at times.)  I have hundreds of tiny early spring lettuces and crucifers that I grow in a "herd," then I transplant them into small rows in various beds located around my house and fence.  This is my third year of "city-gardening," making use of small spaces by growing things vertically (cukes, pumpkins, squash, beans) and also utilizing successive planting.  It's amazing the amount that can be grown on a small plot by these two methods.

I also don't garden in huge swaths of time.  There are challenges to gardening with many small children.  With a six month old baby, I have to use small snippets of moments to run outside and transplant a few plants as I am able.  Also, every year my young children must be reminded of the perimeters.  "You may dig HERE, but not THERE."  "Please do not drive your dumptrucks in mama's garden."

But all in all, Spring brings a compulsion to all things gardening.  Even with little boys prone to digging and cabbage worms to be plucked from the crucifers, it is worth it.  Gardening brings a satisfaction at the thought of growing healthy food for my family, and a sense of thankfulness for this ability that God has placed within humankind in general and in me, specifically.

By July, when it is 98 degrees with 80 percent humidity, I'm not so fond of it.

 I'm linking today to my friend Connie's Gardening Guide.  Mine is not so much a guide as a....philosophy, I guess.  But take from it what you will.

Connie has been a good friend of mine for years.  She and her family were so helpful to us during our time of medical crisis last year.  Now, I see that her husband has been laid off.  If you have read at Connie's blog and have been blessed by her, I encourage you to stop by and leave her any thoughts or suggestions or prayers on her family's behalf.  Another thing that we can do to help (which I will be doing) is to click through her Amazon link when I need to purchase something online.   If I'm going to buy something anyway - why not help someone out?  I know that a lot of people are struggling with the same issue at this time - this is just one little way we can help others thru a time of crisis.  We can  pray, encourage, and offer  practical support.  It meant so much to me when everyone (you!) helped us.

BLT's for Christmas?

It's hard for me to believe that it is December and we still have tomatoes ripening.  This year, right before the first hard frost, I had my little boys pick all of the green tomatoes still on the plants.  We wrapped them in newspaper, and put them in a box on our cold backporch.  My mom stores hers on a table in her basement.  Every few weeks we check the box, and bring out any that are almost red.  We put them on the windowsill to continue ripening.   It was a good tomato year.  We've had fresh tomatoes from our garden for almost six months.  This might not impress those of you who live in the South, but here in Indiana, it's a neat thing.  Even if I don't plant a real (full) garden next year, I'm sure I'll keep at least a few tomato plants.  They're so easy.  Maybe we'll have BLT's for Christmas!  :)