from my garden memorial day weekend

The garden is on the verge of hitting its prettiest window of the entire season.

Roses, sweet peas, perennials, herbs in mass. Lots of delicate beauty and fragrance will be pouring from the greenhouses and garden beds here any day now.

monday

After two long weeks of glorious summer weather, the rain has finally returned to our damp little corner of the world. While the gray and drizzle is a tad bit depressing after such a long stretch of sun, I am secretly happy for the calm and slowed pace it brings. No more frantically hauling hoses around the property trying to making sure all of the beds are irrigated. No more sun hats, sunblock or sunburns. And all of the newly planted babies can slowly adjust to their new homes in the cool, damp days ahead. Pheew!

We stopped in and visited and old farmer friend yesterday. During our chat he recited a little poem to me and I loved it so much I had him copy it down to set in my kitchen window sill. While silly and cute, the underlying mesage is so very true. 

Here's to a calmer week for us all and a little rest before the next big wave. 

Happy Monday everyone!

If you keep your nose to the grindstone rough,

And keep it down there long enough,

In time you will forget there are such things,

As brooks that babble and birds that sing;

And of these will all your world compose:

Yourself, the grindstone, and your poor old nose.

a little helpful how-to

Next months issue of Growing For Market (I'm the flower columnist) will include an article on how to make a simple bridal bouquet using garden flowers. If you're a grower who is considering taking on weddings in the near future or need a little brush up on technique, this was made especially with you in mind  : )

A yearly subscription is only $36 and is worth every penny!

the pea patch

Introducing, the newest addition to our little homestead, the veggie patch!

It’s been years since we’ve grown a garden in earnest. Jasper has carried us through with his tiny pea patches but they generally consist of just beans, zucchini and broccoli and only feed us for a small window of time in the summer. We always cherish that window when we can dash out the backdoor and pick dinner right out of the garden. So, this weekend when Chris and I were supposed to be prepping dahlia beds and running irrigation lines we ditched work and sketched out our little dream plot. He ran to the hardware store, I gathered up tools and we just made it happen.

Weeds are a huge factor here and if we want to have any sort of success we knew the garden needed to be as low maintenance as possible. That’s where the raised beds and landscape fabric came in. The boxes are built out of 1x5” cedar fence boards snagged at the local home improvement store for cheap. Total, with screws, I think we spent $150. Working quickly we slammed 16 boxes out by lunch and left 2 large open spaces in the back for corn and potatoes. The whole plot measures 20x70ft. Then a quick trip to the landscape fabric scrap pile and we covered every remaining inch in black. We had high hopes of setting up drip irrigation as well but life won out and we’ll just use a sprinkler this time around.

The kids started all of the babies from seed in the greenhouse a few weeks back. The patch includes: kale, cabbage, broccoli (purple sprouting and reg.), corn, snap peas, zucchini (yellow, green and emerald), beans (pole, shelling & purple and yellow wax), lettuce, spinach, artichokes, onions (red, yellow and sweet), leeks and a bounty of herbs( oregano, parsley, rosemary, basil, cilantro, sage, thyme and tarragon).We’ll follow up later with another planting of cool season crops like: kale, cabbage, parsnips, carrots and leeks to carry us through the fall.

Potatoes (fingerling, purple, red, Yukon gold and russets) will be planted in the back. Carrots, beets, radishes and another round of salad stuff will be direct sown in the remaining boxes while tomatoes and peppers will be tucked in one of the nearby greenhouses. It’s just too cool here for them to thrive outside. We also have 150ft. row outback set aside for a massive winter squash/pumpkin patch.

As the flower end of our life has grown, it has ultimately taken over our yard and life. While we’re all incredibly grateful for the abundance and success we finally put our foot down and carved out a little space for us. Yes this plot is EXACTLY the right size for another greenhouse. Ayyyeee. Oh, it has been so hard for me to let that go! But now that the little plot is in place it feels so very right.

Here’s to a wonderful summer of food, family and a little more chill.