I love January! It’s
the month when I start pouring over the seed catalogs in anticipation of
planting our garden in the spring. The
pages of these catalogs will be curled and ragged by the time spring actually
rolls around.
Perusing the seed catalogs always brings back memories of
when I was young and my family grew vegetables in our garden. I remember spending what seemed like hours
picking up small rocks after Daddy tilled the garden in the early spring. Then Momma and Daddy would lay off the rows
in straight lines using two long sticks tied together with a long length of
baling twine. Momma would stand at one
end of the garden and Daddy would stand at the other, eyeballing the line they
held between them. When they agreed that
the line was straight, they would push the sticks into the soft, brown dirt and
Daddy would “lay off” the row to be planted.
Being a carpenter by trade, he was all about the straight lines and
always seemed to get the rows laid off perfectly. However, Momma was endlessly teased because,
even with the baling twine to mark the row, she never seemed to be able to hoe
a straight row. In defense of her
gardening ability, she would adamantly assert that the vegetables would grow
just as well in a crooked row as they would in a straight row. It is from my own experience that I can
verify that vegetables do, indeed, grow just as well in a crooked row. (What can I say…like mother, like daughter!)
Charming and I grow vegetables in our small garden behind
our house. It has thirteen, 4’x 8’
beds. Our land seems to be extremely well
suited to growing all kinds of great-tasting tomatoes. Last year, some of the tomatoes that we grew
included Amish Paste, Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple, Mr. Stripey, and a “Mystery”
tomato that we originally rescued from our compost pile a few years ago. Our Mystery tomato is quite prolific,
produces decent-sized fruit and has (so far) been disease-resistant. We also grow potatoes, green beans, limas,
snow peas, green peppers, onions, cabbage and hot peppers. We make every effort not to use
pesticides. You can often find me
crawling along the ground and “murderizing” any unwanted bugs that dare to
invade my precious garden patch. In
addition, I usually plant marigolds around the perimeter of the garden to help deter
the unwanted bugs.
With the help of a couple of “hoop houses” that Charming
constructed, we’re usually able to keep Napa
cabbage growing through December and often into January. This allows me to make some awesomely fresh
stir-fry suppers during the winter months.
Three years ago, Charming also set up a wonderful cascading water catchment
system, made from three 32-gallon trash cans.
We use this to water our garden during the summer dry spells. It recycles the water that runs off our
garage, while saving us from having to pay for clean “town” water to water our
garden. (See pictures below.) Charming has plans to expand this system to
allow for even more water collection.
This will come in handy as he has plans to build a small greenhouse
within the next couple of years.
Growing and maintaining a garden keeps us connected to the
earth, ensures that we eat healthier, and is great exercise. We have found that there is absolutely
nothing more rewarding than being able to take responsibility for the quality
and freshness of the food that we put into our bodies.
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