Filed under: June 2018 | Tags: gardening, growing potatoes, reflection, Small Farming, vegetable gardening, weeding, well being, work
June 26 2018
This morning, I was weeding the garden as the sun rose. The garden is behind a bit due to delayed planting from our rainy weather. It is easy to see that we should get a crop. It may come a little late, but it will taste good just the same.
Weeding is a great quiet time for me. The small weeds succumb to the sharp bladed hoe easily. I am alone with my thoughts. The animals have been fed. The horses are back in the barn after a night of grazing. The biting flies don’t like the dark cool barn, but the horses sure do.
The sheep and cattle are still laying peacefully in the grass. Their bellies are full and the cool morning refreshes them all. I hilled the potato rows. I was going slowly, tucking dirt around the small tender plants. The dirt wasn’t quite ready for this job, but rain is forecast for tomorrow, so I pushed to complete the job. Soon, in the soft hilled up dirt, potatoes will form and grow in the dark, warm ground. A tasty treat, boiled, fried or baked, makes my efforts worthwhile.
Today, I have to use the skidsteer to move the big, plastic-wrapped, round bales of haylage. It is a noisy job that must be done. The horses will rest in the barn as I stack the bales for winter feeding. I need to get them off the field before they kill the grass underneath. I pondered that up coming job as my hoe slid into the Earth, barely making a sound. This sunrise weeding is good for my well being. I sort my day, kill weeds and grow some of my food…all under a beautiful sky, in the cool of morning, surrounded by birdsong.
Filed under: September 2015 | Tags: beets, gardening, parsnips, swiss chard, vegetable gardening
Swiss Chard still going strong
September 20, 2015
I have been cleaning up the garden beds and preparing for winter. In the bed above I have a row of awesome Swiss chard growing like crazy. We have eaten lots of it fresh. We have frozen (well my dear wife has) a good quantity of the chard and it keeps on growing very well. We often cut this “green” way after frost, almost until Thanksgiving. In another bed there is a lonesome pepper plant. It is hanging with peppers ready to pick. I need to remove both vegetables so as to complete my garden plans…but I hate to do it.
The Swiss chard is growing at the end of a soon to be planted strawberry bed. I want to take the chard out, add soil and compost to refill the settled bed, then plant strawberry plants. I have the plants ready to go. I will soon have the time, so this meal favorite of mine will have to go. I will plant more next year, but this prolific vegetable reminds me of summer. Eating a mouthful of the juicy green leaves takes me to summertime, even in the dead of winter.
As a boy, I hated most vegetables, even Swiss chard. My mother encouraged me to eat them anyway. Encouragement was sometimes like punishment, but I learned to eat many garden delights. I also confirmed that some of them I will never like. Once I became an adult, I enjoyed the garden. I became a good gardener and enjoy what I grow. The key here is to grow what you like to eat. I also grow a few things that are not my favorites, but other people enjoy them. I grow for them and give them away with pleasure knowing that I don’t have to eat them….beets and parsnips are two of my least favorite veggies. I do eat them…but I just hate to do it 😮
RicelandMeadows 