Rebuild from Depression Blog

Another gardening post from mom:

I got my love for gardening from my grandmother who planted pansies and lettuce together every spring. By the time the pansies were full and spreading, we had eaten up lettuce.

For my 9th birthday I planted my first garden. Too bad Nanna lived three states away. She would have given me some great advice to ensure a great garden.

Oh well!

In my enthusiasm, I pulled up the carrots every couple of days to see how they were doing. Fortunately, I spent the better part of the summer with my grandmother, so the over-inspected carrots had a chance to do their thing. My parents ate them before my return. They assured me the carrots were terrific.

Mom and Frederick planted seeds back in April which are now ready to burst out of their pots and garden beds if only they had some sunshine. The heat wave in mid-May that caused them to leap out of their six packs was replaced by an unseasonal cold spell.

When the sun does hit, we are set to be over-run with produce. We planned a small garden for the season because we were "too busy" for anything bigger. We just don't seem to do much around here that is small. The garden plans have mushroomed. I do not know exactly how many tomato plants we will have but I did overhear a conversation between my mom and husband,

"Sander, could you please pick up seventeen tomato cages when you're in town?"

I expect we had quite a few tomato cages already and now we have seventeen more.

My mom has been collecting seed for a "perfect tomato" for our area and has quite an assortment of heirlooms. What is great about the tomatoes is that we can plant them in our orchard under the young trees and water both at the same time. It really gets better because a hen house sits in the middle of the orchard. Then hens fertilize the crops and do not bother the tomatoes. It doesn't get much better than that (except that we move the tomatoes around so this tomato nirvana only comes around every few years).

With a wedding at this house in a short two months from now, we have another garden area planted with summer vegetables and wedding flowers. We could probably serve fresh garden produce to the 180 people coming to visit, though I do have plans to eat most of it myself.

Technorati Tags: gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Rebuild from Depression

Our family orchard has three trees that are already bearing fruit. I look forward to the fruit but I do not look forward to fighting the birds for the fruit. I don't mind sharing but birds have a way of clearing a tree. We have gone to great trouble to net our trees. but fussing with each free net is not my idea of entertainment. In fact, we could not face the nets this year.

As our cherries began to ripen and I wondered how many we would actually eat, our friend Gerry happened by one day and discussed her orchard in the context of sampling her apricot jam. She mentioned casually, "I save those plastic bags from the grocery store and tie them to the tree limbs. They scare the birds away!"

The sun had not set that day when I noticed our cheery tree cluttered with plastic grocery bags.

That was a few weeks ago and I have made it my duty to spend at least 10 minutes with that tree every day enjoying those cherries. I look forward to the nectarines and plums.

The summer of 2008 will not be known for its garden. With well over one hundred plants, including upwards of thirty heirloom tomato plants, we eat summer squash only sporadically. We do have an abundance of tomatoes, but we will not end up with quarts of sauce or gallons of jars of dried tomatoes even with thirty plants.

It was a strange, lean summer. Spring lasted longer than expected and our plants sat in the garden, uninspired, through most of June. The plants looked great for the wedding here in August, but guests certainly would have been surprised to hear that our biggest crop was purslane and we didn't even plant it. (We nominate purslane, by the way, as the crop of the future climate Apocalyse.) The nectarines and apples did not disappoint but it sure is hard for fruit to make up for the absence of a fine yellow crook neck squash. For those who just started gardening with Victory Gardens and who had a similar experience: this isn't normal.

As a final "goodbye" to the season's crops, I've invited a new friend over for a feast of bruschetta on fine sourdough bread and red wine. We will sit on the back deck, eat our bruschetta, and watch the sun set. I will lament the summer garden and doubly lament that I should not lament with red wine until this baby arrives.

Technorati Tags: gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Victory Gardens, Rebuild from Depression