Wordless Wednesday - Community Garden

 

Garden score - today's picks

This makes me so happy. I actually grew something othr than my offspring.

Izzy, Izzy, look at your garden grow

This.  This right here is why we are growing a garden. 


I came outside to water the garden and headed for the hose. I heard the door, thought Isabella may have followed me but didn't think much of it.  I found her sitting in the garden picking garden beans.  I ran back in to grab the camera and she had already picked and eaten about 1/2 dozen.  


Izzy Bean.  That she is. 


Now if only I could get her to wait till some of the beans get a little bigger....


Just the beans, not her. 

Garden Update

The garden grid.

Tomatoes, watermelon, more tomatoes

Spinach, lettuce, garden beans

Summer Squash, cucumber, cilantro

zucchini, basil, basil and more basil.

Herb garden, peas, strawberries

The zucchini.

Some peas.

da herbs.

Popeye's fav.

Lots o' garden beans. And cilantro in the back.

Strawberry.

Kiss my grit....g'bye

There really is something to eating something fresh from the garden.  Of course as long as you get all the grit out.

What a pain in the tuchas that is...looks like a tasty bite, chew, chew, chew and *crunch*. Ick. Grit. Gross.

Anyway, we finally "harvested" - and I use that term very loosely - our first produce from our garden.  Some nice baby lettuce.  Of course it was only 6 leaves, so I mixed them in with the CSA green leaf lettuce from this week's share, but hey, it's a start!

So back to the grit issue.  There is a trick I learned for that.  It involves a bowl of water, soaking and lightly swishing (great word) the leaves (all the dirt should sink to the bottom) and then using a handy dandy salad spinner.



We've now had our CSA for about 4 months and they send lettuce or spinach or arugala (another great word) with our share each week.  Each week I rinse the lettuce or greens, soak it and then dry each bunch by wrapping in a paper towels so it doesn't get all mushy in my make-a-head-containers of salad.  (Dressing doesn't stick to wet salad. Blech.) Can you imagine how long that took, not to mention the number of paper towels I used? (I did reuse them though.)  But due to time constraints...who has time to get to the store?...And my cheapassness, I wouldn't buy a salad spinner.

People go without spinners all the time. Yet I must have complained at some point.  Because last week, this is what happened as we were walking out the door for our anniversary lunch.....

David: Your present hasn't arrived yet, it's on back order from Amazon.
Me: OMG (I didn't really say OMG) You got me a salad spinner!
David: OMG (David didn't really say it, either) I can't even surprise you.
Me:  It's the best present evah! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You may think I am kidding, that I would be excited to get a salad spinner for an anniversary prezzie, but I am really not.  I will gladly take practical over posh.  After all, I "have a distrust of the fanciful" according to my insights profile.

Since the cat was out of the bag (or the salad was...but then again most pre-made salads are already in a bag. but I digress.) I made sure we somehow ended up in Dedham (seeing as I was driving) so we could go to BB&B to get said salad spinner and take it home rather than wait for Amazon to ship.  Woot!

So these 6 bad boys were the first things to use in my new salad spinner. Sweet. No more patting dry for me.

And yeah, I did see another potential anniversary present at BB&B.  Two actually.  But that is another story for another day....or maybe next anniversary.

Inside garden. That isn't supposed to happen.

It has been so cold the last two weeks, and two frost warnings this last week, that I was happy that I wasn't able to get the plants in the ground until Saturday.  The inside of my house looked like a green house.  

Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, peas and garden beans lined the dining room window.

Lettuce, strawberries, more garden beans and spinach over here in the living  room.

And in the kitchen, cucumbers, watermelon, oregano, rosemary, cilantro, thyme and dill are on the sill.  Dill, sill that rhymes. You'd think I have a pre-schooler or two in the house.  

Not going anywhere, but growing everywhere

I think I get it now. Why people will continually walk around with dirt inder their nails from gardening. Ok, so maybe not why other people do it but I think I figured out why I do it.

And not the dirt under the nails part, but the gardening part.

Last week I made a raised bed for our garden.  Then I added lath to make a square foot garden, planned out the plot and bought and planted some seeds.  

Here is where the most amazing thing happened. I prepared the dirt for their arrival and I was pouring these little tiny seeds in my hand and before putting each little seed in their bed of dirt and compost, I thanked them for all the work they were about to do and for all the people, my family, friends, church community, they were going to feed. This impromptu little pray was a serious shift in my thinking.

I talked about this in previous posts, but I have not always had the healthiest relationship with food. I was a food hoarder, bored eater, emotional eater. I still find my self reaching for a handful of granola when I am frustrated or had a rough day. (Still working on that one.) The hoarding happened when I felt like food was scarce, that if I didn't stake claim on it, someone else will. This kind of thinking meant I ignored true hunger signs and went for the food because it was there and I could.  And if I didn't... OMG... would it be there tomorrow!? I can't say that I actually *thought* that every time, but the feelings were certainly there. 

So in looking at these seeds I realized the abundance ABUNDANCE of all the food around me. It isn't going anywhere, in fact it is GROWING everywhere! Not only is there enough to feed me and my family, but we plan on having enough so when the new babies come, or the unexpected illness or funeral happens in the neighborhood, church community or just because it's nice to have a meal ready and you don't have to cook, we will have enough to make delicious dishes to share.  

My secretive love affair with food has shifted to a open and affirming relationship with my garden and those sweet little seeds that are going to do a lot of work this summer. 

Thank you seeds. 
I honor you.

What's growin' on?

How does someone that needs complete order and organization garden for the first time ever?  Why, Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, you can plant a square foot garden.  

Nerdgasm alert! OMG, you mean I can use Excel to plan my garden???!! I'm in heaven. 

But....

Beyond Excel, I don't like to be put into a box.  I mean from an identity perspective.  If I try to list all the people, groups, etc. I identify with, I would have more boxes in my box than those 30 up there! 

Oh snap! 

Peas.

But basil on the other hand, you, yes you have a place.  I'm looking at you in the far right hand corner. Yes, my perspective not yours.  Because I am newbie gardener. Dang, there is another box to put me in.   

So what is square foot gardening?  

There's this guy, named Mel that came up with it.  You can read about it here.  But there is this other woman, that took it a step future and organized dates, times, planting patterns (she is the Queen of organization and I am now a loyal subject). You can find out about your "color" in your area and when and how to plant, transplant or companion plant here. 

Based on what you want to plant and how far apart the seeds should be, the Queen Square came up with this handy-dandy reference table.  

This loyal Square is reposting for your reading pleasure.

Here is the link to a google spreadsheet with my plan. 


There are probably not so newbie gardeners out there.  I would love love love if you would give any feedback you have.  I like feedback. :)

The Outer Aisle or Outside

Going from flash frozen veggies to outer aisle was a big step. Going organic was the next step. CSA came next and now for the biggest transformation of them all. 

Local food.  

Like really local.  As in my backyard local.  

I am pretty clueless when it comes to plants and things. I've pretty much killed any plant that I have tried to grow. I even let an African Violet wither and die and you really can't kill those things. In all honesty, it isn't surprising since plants need water and I forget to give myself water, so how am I going to remember to give plants water. 

But, I will try.  

And now I have my kids to help remind me.  They are good at reminding me to give them drinks at dinner since I forget that too. 

Now the question is....

What will go into this beyond organic jardin?  

Before

Working on tilling the soil

Deciding to make our own raised bed