Around the Garden

Ah, the garden. I am finding much peace in the garden these days, from my early morning walks checking in on everything, to time planting, and harvesting, to sitting back at the end of the day, exhausted but happy after a day in the garden...these are good days, my friends, good days.

Over the weekend the tomatoes went in the ground, and another sowing of carrots, beans, and peas. I have one more sowing of beans to do, and maybe a few seeds, here and there, to plant where previous seeds didn’t come up, but other than that, all the planting is done. It feels good, to have that big job behind us, and to move into the tend and nurture stage.

Cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins have all sprouted, and I hope by next week to show you how we are growing them this year. We are going to try a little vertical gardening in order to free up space in the raised beds. Justin is constructing a little archway, anchored by four large pots, which will grow the cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins. It is an experiment, if it works great, if not, we will have learned something in the process. And lucky for us our local farmers will grow all those things and more, and we are happy to support them should our garden not produce as we would like it to.

The blueberries and alpine strawberries have flowers, and the raspberries are doing well. The asparagus hasn’t done anything yet, but from what I read, once you plant the crowns it can take a while to see any growth. So I will keep waiting. The herb garden is in full bloom and in the next week or so I will start harvesting comfrey, catnip, lemon balm, and all heal to infuse for salves and tinctures.  

Reece ran out to his garden on Tuesday morning, and was excited to see his beans sprouting. I just nodded and smiled, with total understanding about the excitement. It never gets old, seeing the seeds sprout from the earth, the slow unfurling of the magic. It is awesome every single time, and now witnessing his joy in the process, well it is pretty amazing.

We are harvesting from the garden daily, morning, noon, and night. Nettles, salad greens, kale, Swiss chard, and chives are making their way into our meals, and combined with the wild foraging we have been doing, and eggs from our hens, we are starting to tip the scales back to more homegrown, local eating, and I can’t tell you how good that feels. Talking about hens, did you see our chicks? They were a month old yesterday and they are growing like crazy. They have lost their baby feathers, and slowly their new feathers are coming in. The entertainment they provide is never ending, and the lessons for Reece, in nurturing another living thing, can’t be beat.

Justin has finished the fencing and gates on the front garden, and has just one more garden to fence in. You can see he has laid out some logs defining the space, and today he should get pretty close to finishing it up. Gravel is being delivered this week, 23 tons of it, to create pathways in the fenced in areas, and to start work on a space for our bees next spring. Whatever is left will be spread on the driveway.

Did you catch the mention of bees in that last sentence? Yes, next spring we will be adding to our little homestead. This is an addition I have wanted to do for a long time. I did a beekeeping workshop three years ago, and then just didn’t step up and get my own hives going. But no more, they will be here next spring. We are spending some time this year creating a space for the bees, complete with a wildflower bed, and a lovely gravel patio for the hives. We are going to create a hugelkultur bed for the wildflowers, just to spice things up a bit, and try something new. We are both pretty excited about it, and have been collecting a few old logs, and twigs to get started building the bed in the next few weeks.

That about sums up what is happening around my garden, how are things around your garden?