I spent last week, in my walking boot and short sleeves digging around in my friend's garden. We staked and raked, planned and planted. We (okay, she) started her seeds in her seedling pots. She even made me one flat of heirloom tomatoes! We scratched our heads as we fussed and moaned over crop rotation.
But, really...it was divine. I love having my hands in the dirt. Almost as much as I love dancing....almost.
The weather was right up there with peanut butter and chocolate kisses.
The weather here at home isn't quite all peanut butter and chocolate kisses, but rather kinda more like mudpie. Sigh*
As I look out our living room window today I hear our 40x60 garden wooing me, telling me it's hungry for seed and I mentally go over what will go where. I spent the latter part of today going through seed catalogs, gardening books and my own country garden journal. Do you have a journal that you keep your last year's notes in?
This year I've decided that I really need to put a crop rotation into effect. This is no small task when you don't really want to move the large area of corn. Whaddya you think? Should I move it? It's about a 20x40 area. And really...it's in the best area of the land.
Well, even if we don't move the corn we will still need to address the crops rotating. No need to invite the bugs back year after year.
We are toying with black cloth and straw in the walkways this year as well. Really tired of all the weeding. This worked really well in my friends garden last year...she said she had almost no weeds at all. That's what I'm talking' about!
Looks like potatoes, spinach, lettuce, peas, melons, onions, and garlic may hit the scene soon.
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I can already smell the dirt.
Heavenly.
3 comments:
Ah! I can hardly wait for it to be warm enough (and dry enough) to plant. Ordered our seeds and I need to start working on a blueprint for planting this year.
(If you need another gardening book, I would highly reccomend Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Roette about companion planting)
I never thought of keeping a gardening journal...you have inspired me!!! (= That's a marvelous idea! Love all your gardening pictures. I'm hoping to get some good snapshot of my own this year.
Happy planning!
Shalom in Messiah,
Maiden Princess
Hi Sandy! Yes, I keep a garden journal, it's a lime green 3-ringed binder -- green as in garden growing (I like to color coordinate). We don't do too much rotation, but we don't have too much problems with bugs either. We have been working towards using all heirloom seeds with mixed results, but keep trying. This year I am kicking the corn out of the garden as my husband likes to grow the corn the 3-sisters (indian) method of growning with it beans & squash; well, last year the squash was like on steriods and took over my entire garden. I was afraid it was going to wrap its vines around my legs and pull me under, so it's been banished from "my" garden to further out in the field. I think I might try pickles this year in it's place. Oh, by the way, we do give our garden a 7th year shabbat and let the land rest every 7th year (or did I tell you that already). Anyways, happy gardening - and Passover!
Plain Jane...thanks for the comment. Your corn story had me laughing! I can just see a you tube video of a man eating squash vine....non too pretty!
Passover was beautiful and was spent at Ranch Shekinah. What an incredible weekend we had there.
Heading home from Florida to our wooded estate on the river. The garden is calling me.
Be well my friend~Sandy
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