What did you do in the garden today?

[chickadoodles]

I love trying to grow my little veggies and fruits. I am not a life long gardener but my father was. He was from the old days when you grew what you ate or you did not eat. He watched as the hoppers age their crops and they had nothing. Before the dust bowl days of Oklahoma.
He did teach me some about gardening before he left this world. I started trying to grow food when I was in my late 20's. And there is still so much to learn.

I married a life long farmer in Alabama and he is a wonderful teacher. He has farmed his whole life. But there are things he has not grown either so some things we learn together even in our near retirement age. lol

I learn so much from groups like this and Larry Hall's rain gutter face book page. I know I can't keep up with most of you on the size of my garden any more but I still enjoy puttering in it and harvesting the fruits of my efforts.
Thank you all so much for being so helpful and sharing your knowledge with me and many others who are eager to learn.

 

[lazy gardener]

learning is a life long adventure.

 

[chickadoodles]

learning is a life long adventure.

Yes it is and I enjoy every minute of it.

 

[GardenNut]

Agreed! If I'm not learning, I'm probably bored! I wasted today, so I plan to sow some flower seeds tomorrow and put them under the grow lights! Thanks for your inspiration!

 

[Arielle]

Quote:
I completely forgot about fedco. a long time Maine homesteader who relocated back here to the family home turf is a wonder to talk to. I never miss a chance to pass ideas by him or ask about the production of plants. He has a lifetime of knowledge to share for the asking. He put me onto Johnnys and Fedco.

I was a little slow to pick up on the high number of hybrids atJohnnys. ANd at first I was taken aback... but with some further thinking, I see value in the old heirlooms AND the hybrids. Much to be said for both. NOT talking about GMOs here. But varieties bred to resist diseases and pests when production is a must and not an option. Fruit and veg heading off to9 market need durable characteristics that often heirlooms that only needed to make from garden to table, or even shorter, garden to mouth. lol This year I have added hybrids to my long list of heirlooms.

I couldn't agree more. Some people just don't internalize things. They have eyesight but no vision and don't commit things to memory. I've been a gardener/farmer all my life. I think that has a lot to do with it. People that have never grown things or kept animals have an almost insurmountable learning curve to overcome.
Some people hear words or witness things and don't think about it for a second after the experience.
I'm amazed at the simple or commonplace things adults DON'T know.

On the point of what did I do today, I'm only half way through it but I'm starting tomato seeds, planting some peas, building soil circles around fruit trees where I'm planting strawberries, planting some more asparagus, lettuce, spinach and going into a beehive and perhaps splitting it. I'm sure it is close to swarming.

CC, I totally agree with you. My mother started gardening flowers. Then progressed to vegie gardens, and I learned from her a bit here and there. No animals beyond dogs and cats and pet rabbitsl Had to go off to college to see livestock.lol Felt like a dunce compared to the other students that grew up on farms. I was lightyears behind.

We live in a rush rush modern world and do not have time to sit and ponder and think and think and think......... there is great value in farming life as you cannot rush the process, and it needs tending on a daily basis..... and their is time to think when doing the mundane like cleaning a horse stall or weeding a garden. ANd time to talk.....without a TV, radio or other electronics to distract a person.

I often ponder the negative effects of yanking the third world countries into the modern era......the loss of farming, respect of the land, and loss of ones"neighbors."

I agree with you GN. and CC. The average person who goes to work, comes home, vegges in front of the tube, only to get up and do it all over again misses so much of the rhythms of life, and the pleasure that those rhythms and patterns create. How many folks get excited to see snow fleas? How many folks even know what a snow flea is, or have taken the time to inspect the little black specks on late winter snow to see that they are actually tiny little insects that hop around? How many folks can stop in the lawn, and pick a bouquet of 4 leaf clovers, without hardly having to look for them? How many folks can see the flower within a flower, and appreciate the infinite beauty of that perfect little blossom? And how many folks get infinite smiles every day and every hour over those little tidbits of God's creation? Call me a simpleton! I'll sit here, and marvel at the joys and thrills that unfold outside my back door, and be thankful for every moment I have to spend out there. And, enjoying those pleasures, I believe gives me a greater awareness of the rest of the stuff that makes up my world. Enjoyment of the intricacies of human nature, when I do have to do the "go to work" thing!

You are not a simpleton, but found the real value of living. ANd you are teaching that to your children.

I'm working with my kids this summer to start a mock business using a farm stand as the model. Oldest was quick to claim the book keeper job and rushed off to make 4 spread sheets on excel. Didn't even know he knew how to use that program. Guess school has taught him something. THat was yesterday. Today he comes home to tell me about a computer program that helps identify likely jobs he would be interested in.......accounting!!!! Ive been trying to tell him that for weeks..... engineering isn't the only math oriented career. rofl THough with the interest rates he charges me on loans, he should be a loan shark. lol

 

[lazy gardener]

My BIL is an accountant. He says he'll always have job security. whether the market goes up or down, he says they'll always need bean counters! When I was in Guatemala this summer, I came face to face with the 3rd world vs US philosophy, relationships and way of living. When I first got there, I was taken aback by the squalor, and by the folks just sitting around, not involved in the hustle and bustle that we consider to be a necessity. It took me a while to realize that 30 years of civil war had stripped their country of finances. While they still had the natural beauty, they didn't even have means at their disposal to clean up their yards and streets. No public transport to take the garbage away to non existent land fills. And, the joy those people had, not being tied to the hustle that we live with!

 

[LittleLakePhil]

I'm no fan of GMO's
But some of my favorite tomatoes and peppers are hybrids..... In my extremely short cold growing season they become a nessessity if you plan to get any fruit at all.
Just let the dogs out.... Snowing again hard...... We got two feet on the ground now...... Thought winter was over...... Guess not

 

[lazy gardener]

I am not at all saying that I am anti hybrid. I use hybrid veggies. (and make some of my own!) But do appreciate the stand that Fedco and a few other seed companies are taking to not purchase seeds contaminated with GMO.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Oh LG I never said you were..... Just started that some of my favorites were is all..... And even needed here.
If I lived in longer growing season then I'd probably just use heirloom plants....

 

[OrganicFarmWife]

Just to butt in...hybrid seeds do not have GMOS necessarily. Most hybrids are created using very controlled breeding and maybe grafting (I think) GMOs are a completely different seperate thing, using genetics of several different species.
We are certified organic with crops. We have to use a hybrid species of corn that does not cross pollinate with the neighbor's GMO corn.
People have been using hybrids for centuries, GMOs are completely different.