6 amazing weeks

Taking pictures of what is going on in your garden really helps you realize what you have accomplished in a short period of time. We started to till the ground up at our farm site for our early planting of potatoes and broccoli and kale in mid febuary . In late march and early april we started putting our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers , watermelons cantelpes and squash plants in the ground. By late april we started harvesting a little squash ,onions and radishes. Then came the first week of may with a lot of squash and the beginning potato harvest yielding over 75 lbs . The garden has produced over 500lbs of produce in the last 6 weeks. I am totally amazed.

Last week I was pretty stressed out about the heat and the drying wind . I was sure my plants were going to shrivel up and go away. We watered every 3 days and most everything has made it. Only the pickling cucmbers seemed to suffer but even they are making a rebound .

Today was a great day at the market and my csa members got a heavy share this week. There was tomatoes, squashes, cucmbers eggplants and peppers. I was feeling pretty blessed. but i was overwhelmed when i got out to the big garden on harbert road and found that even though i had picked tomatoes and cucmbers yesterday morning there were lots more this evening. To make things even better as I was giving all the plants a drink I noticed lots of watermelons and cantelopes that I am sure were not there a week ago. They have grown so fast that these two melons took up residence in the last 10 days under the wheelbarrow. One is a black diamond and the other a carlolina cross. There are watermelon vines everywhere. I am hoping that everyone will get a nice cantelope or 2in thier basket next week.

This weeks harvest etc....oh yes salmonella free

This weeks harvest : Despite the heat and wind we are still harvesting enough vegtables for a generous share weighing more than 12 pounds. This week share will have; cucumbers, squashes (yellow, spagetti, 8 ball, patti pan and acorn), tomatoes, long beans , herbs, peppers and eggplant.
The squash beetles are back and I am hoping to keep them away with wood ashes and sesame seed oil. If i am successful my second planting of squashes will be bountiful. Squash beetles are borers that kill the plant by boring into the plant base and laying there eggs inside of the vine nearest the root base. I put the ashes on the base of the plant and the sesame oil helps it stick. hopefully this will deter them. If anyone else out there has a people friendly method to deal with these pests let me know.
The news has been full of stories about the salmonella contanmination of the Roma Tomatoes. Buying local seasonal vegtables is the best protection from these kinds of diseases . How did that mess happen ? More than likely tomatoe crops were infected by poor human sanitation practices on the commercial farms . The sad thing about this is it is impossible to find the source as the tomatoes are shipped to a huge packaging plant from many different places and mixed together. Salmonella is waterborn and well ,it is wet in those places . Those viruses will flourish given the right opputunity and enough time.

Local vegtables are picked , sold and consumed in a matter of days versus weeks on the commercial end. They are also ripe and thus loaded with antioxident nutrients that naturally fight off these germs and bacteria. Commercial tomatoes are often picked green sprayed with a chemical to make them look ripe. Because the fruit does not ripen naturally it does not reach its nutrient potential.
I believe that more people die from disease related to poor nutrition including the voluntary omission of fresh fruits and vegetables than the rare outbreak of disease from waterborne transmission to vegetable crops. I am more concerned about people avoiding fruits and veggies altogether because of the fear of contaminated food. I am saddened by this event for all people.

the gift of a garden.

Im not sure what I should compliment first, my husband or my tiller. I think I will start with the tiller.

For the last couple of years I had been getting by with my old small tiller and a hoe. That worked great until we had the big expansion out to the land in Kurten. As you can imagine breaking up pasture land with a tiller made for a backyard garden was not fun. I was determined to take things to a bigger level. So with perserverence and some help from my father in law with the tractor I got the soil broken up. The tractor only breaks it up in rough pieces so then I would go back over it with the little tiller. Lots of time for little results. I started my search for a big tiller and almost got a really nice used Troybuilt horse from Ike's for a great price. Problem was that my accountant(my husband ) was in Australia when I found it and by the time I got the okay it was gone. I was seriously disapointed because they have stopped making them so If you know anyone with a used Troybuilt Horse that is selling let me know. Well my husband who hates to see me disapointed started searching for tillers and the day before my birthday we went to Sears and picked up my new tiller. Now this tiller may not be a Horse but, it is the Cadillac of its kind. The tines go forward or reverse and it is self propelling. It made fast work of the 1/4 acre that needed to be tilled for purple hulled peas and pintos.

Often times I have heard it said that God knows our hopes and dreams but we need to be patient for his timing. Having a garden large enough to feed other families has been a long time dream of mine, one that I have had since I first discovered my passion for gardening 23 years ago. I big venture and one that would require the help of a team . Now through the years I have owned acreage out in the country but the not everyone wanted to play on the team so 5 years ago I put the dream aside and moved into the city minus the oldest team member. I had resigned myself to the single life with kids and a small lot in a nice subdivision. Well the time came that I started dating , I met people through friends and of course joined a dating web site . Now I met lots of nice men but noone that had my interests .Besides that I wasnt having much luck with that rock hard clay in my backyard. So, One day I laid my head in my hands and prayed to God and asked him to send someone into my life who liked kids and shared one of my interests. The next day I saw him on the dating website , his profile said "enjoys gardening" lives in Bryan. Now the pic was'nt that great but what the heck... at least he might be able to tell me what grows in Bryan soil. So my first correspondance was about gardening and my need for help. Well when people share a passion a friendship develops and a month later we had our first date and about 2 weeks after that I had my hands in his soil and was securing barbed wire on t posts out in Kurten. We got married in his backyard garden ( now ours) 15 months later. I thank God everyday for my husband , who shares my dreams and buys me romantic gifts like a tiller and a pedicure to clean up those garden feet.