There is one word to describe the March garden. It is a mess.
This is the view from the back of the garden looking south with the woods behind me. It is on the bottom of a low hill which is why the ground stays wet longer after a rain. That is good in the dry summer, but painful in the wet spring when you want the ground dry enough to plow. It is as large as it seems in the picture and is a long walk from the house to the garden. I do not "pop" out to the garden to pick a few herbs for dinner. I harvest everything at once.
This unsightly mess is a work project in process. Originally we planted a Concord grapevine on a trellis to hide everything from the view of the house. Last year a fire ant colony killed the grapevine deep underground around the root. We did not know what happened until it died. Bill tore the aging trellis down and is working on rebuilding the fire pit, which is necessary to safely burn termite infested sticks.
The mountain of junk beside the trash cans is from cleaning out the garage. Next, we will be cleaning out the tool shed in the back. We are waiting for Reese to return home (if he remembers where we live) with the truck so we can make a HUGE dump run. Knowing he will be required to haul a stinky, maggot infested load might keep him from ever coming back. He never reads my posts, just looks at the pictures, so I am safe in writing this and telling the world. He will never know until he gets home. Wonder what I can cook to entice him to visit?????
Update: Reese did read this post and I was caught and apologized. All the groveling was worth it to be able to fry him some chicken again.
Behind the fire pit is my AWESOME compost pile. To a non-gardener, this looks like a pile of gunk; but to me, it is gold, compost in the making. Turning it over at regular times is not something I bother doing. It is easier to just wait until spring planting and dig up what I need. If you wait long enough, everything breaks down...eventually.
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| I luv my compost pile. |
These are some of the plants that survived the winter without any protection. A few kale plants remain and they came back to life as soon as it warmed.
This is "Scarlet Kale" and has become my favorite since I like the flavor the best. All my other kale seeds will be planted (because I can't throw seeds away) but my plans are to only save seeds from this plant.
Collard greens are coming back to life also, even though they had a hard winter. Now they are thriving.
Egyptian (or Walking) onions are perennial and survived the winter with ease. Each plant sends up a shoot with a small bunch of bulblets on the tip which falls over and root. They end up "walking" all around the garden.
We have not mowed or plowed the garden yet because it is too wet. I like to forage around for wayward seedlings that have sprouted. The seeds may have been dropped by accident, blown by the wind, but for whatever reason, a free salad is waiting to be picked among the weeds.
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| Lettuce. |
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| Red Romaine lettuce. |
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| Turnip Green. |
This hoop house, the one closest to the field, will be staying up for a while longer so I can experiment planting various seeds under it. It will need careful hand weeding and planting to not harm the older plants.
The spinach which was planted late in the season and then languished all winter, are now growing so fast I can't harvest them quick enough.
This is further on down the hoop house where different plants are growing.
This is the one and only savoy cabbage that was under the hoop house. It seems hardy and has endured the winter weather well, just a very slow grower.
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| Lettuce. |
These are the two side by side hoop houses which are closest to the house. They will be coming down and the whole area plowed under.
They are going to seed and the bees love the blooms.
This is one of the cabbages from this hoop house that has not bolted yet and it will be eaten for dinner. I am getting ready to harvest the row in preparation for spring plowing.
NO! NO! NO! SCOOTER!
NOT THERE! NOT ON TOP OF MY CABBAGES!
It seems there is enough room on the compost pile for a few more cabbages. Sigh.
April's Garden (2017)
February's Garden (2017)
I Was Caught...Again
A house and a garden where REAL people live, shows REAL live. It is
ReplyDeletenot the setting for a false commercial. So do not worry when there are spots and corners where cleanups should be done.
Be happy having such a large plot to live on !
( Which is only a dream for so many people.)
Christel
We are real people and I wanted to share something truthful, not perfect. I love having so much land but it is really a great amount of work. Each year I tell myself I will plant less, but then I just keep planting more.
DeleteWe lived in the city in a small house on a tiny lot and saved money for 19 years before we could afford to move. It was worth all the economizing.
If I can do it, anyone can do it.
Hilarious as always! Is that Scooter I see in the second photo? He is such a cutie!
ReplyDeleteYes Margaret, it is Scooter in both pictures. He always goes with me to the garden to protect me from any birds flying over the yard.
DeleteA cutie! NOT! He has ruined half of my cabbages! Bill asked me what if I had not seen him. Would we have eaten the cabbages? OH WHAT A HORRIBLE THOUGHT!
As we were hunting for houses, the realtor wanted me to look at houses. I wanted to look at gardens and dirt. I had serious "dirt" envy. I get the idea of the lovely compost pile. I have it's brother going on over here. I never turn my piles, either. They certainly turn into great dirt, though. Rob plans to build be an enclosure for mine out of old pallets like he did at the old house. He has several projects to do around here. But, I'm so thankful he went up and retrieved our tillers on Saturday, and tilled part of the garden last evening while I was still at work. It's still too wet, and not ready for all of it, but he knocked down a lot of weeds, and got me a place for some early things to go into. I am going to try to do that today, once the ground has had a chance to dry out bit more throughout the morning. We shall see if it happens between homeschool, an orthodontist appt for Patsy, driver's ed class for J and A, chipping out the large pile of dirty dishes from the past 2 days that are on the counter, and cooking something so we can have another choice beyond canned pork and beans and turkey hot dogs:) It's been one of those weeks, where I ended up being gone for 10 hours Monday (extra unexpected work day), and all but about 4 hours yesterday and those hours were all used for school (dr. appt, regular work, dance class and YMCA=collapse into chair)!!! I guess vacation is over:)
ReplyDeleteBecky, you are way ahead of us. It is still a mud hole in my garden and I haven't even started my seedlings yet. Another storm is blowing in tonight and I don't know what to expect. They have even closed the schools two hours early today. Crazy weather.
DeleteWhen we were looking for houses years ago I did like you and looked at the dirt. I knew this land did not have great dirt, mostly rocks, but it did have a good garden location. I have since learned to like the rocks.