I’ve always wondered if the nursury rhyme referred to “Mary” or the “garden” as contrary. I can make a case for either, I think.
If you’ve never been a gardener, now is a grand time to start. As in, finish reading this blog, click ‘follow’ and enter your email address to verify your identity just to humor me, and then go out and find a sunny little patch of earth where you can plant something. It doesn’t matter if it’s only two feet square, if you like to eat, you’ll enjoy gardening.
Now go get the shovel and turn the earth over and chop it up. If it’s a little bigger area, you might use the blade of a pick. It’s great! Unless the soil is rich and black and loose, you might want to go to Walmart and buy a sack of humus and manure. It will cost about $1.37. While you’re there, grab a couple of packets of seeds and a cheerful little tomato plant or two. (Indeterminant on the tag means the vines will trail all over the ground if you don’t prop them up. Determinent means they behave better but produce less abundantly.) The letters after the name of the plant indicate diseases they resist. If you have a humid, fungus-y disease smitten place, the more letters the better. I like Early girl and Better Boy. (I have no idea why they have such sexist names, but they should do well almost anywhere.)
Mix that sack of dirt in well. Plant the seeds in clusters and you’ll get more from the space than if you plant in a row. Allow a few inches in between the seeds and don’t plant broken seeds. Bury the tomatoes deep and tip them on their sides. Bury all but the top leaf joints under an inch or two of soil. The plant will look like it’s lying down for only a day or two, but the stem will curve toward the light and you won’t be able to tell that it was lying down. (new roots will grow along the stem and increase plant vigor It may even send up new plant shoots from the joints). Water it all well. Give it a little miracle grow or “blue koolaid” a few times as it grows. (The Store brand of 10-10-10 mixture is great) Check your garden daily. Pick off bugs and kill them. Crush tomato horned worms. Shoot the deer and rabbits and roast them on a slow spit as an example to other critters. (Ha! You think I’m kidding!)
Garden fresh produce tastes spectacular. Once you develop an appetite for it, you’ll realize that it isn’t so hard to produce. You’ll find varieties that do better than others. You’ll get exercise and sunshine.
And when all is said and done, you might, you just might, maybe need to know how to grow your own food. Now is a much better time to start than later.
Feel free to ask questions and make comments and tell all about your own garden and BY ALL MEANS GIVE ADVICE!
Now, I’m going out to harvest the asparagus.
If you’ve never been a gardener, now is a grand time to start. As in, finish reading this blog, click ‘follow’ and enter your email address to verify your identity just to humor me, and then go out and find a sunny little patch of earth where you can plant something. It doesn’t matter if it’s only two feet square, if you like to eat, you’ll enjoy gardening.
Now go get the shovel and turn the earth over and chop it up. If it’s a little bigger area, you might use the blade of a pick. It’s great! Unless the soil is rich and black and loose, you might want to go to Walmart and buy a sack of humus and manure. It will cost about $1.37. While you’re there, grab a couple of packets of seeds and a cheerful little tomato plant or two. (Indeterminant on the tag means the vines will trail all over the ground if you don’t prop them up. Determinent means they behave better but produce less abundantly.) The letters after the name of the plant indicate diseases they resist. If you have a humid, fungus-y disease smitten place, the more letters the better. I like Early girl and Better Boy. (I have no idea why they have such sexist names, but they should do well almost anywhere.)
Mix that sack of dirt in well. Plant the seeds in clusters and you’ll get more from the space than if you plant in a row. Allow a few inches in between the seeds and don’t plant broken seeds. Bury the tomatoes deep and tip them on their sides. Bury all but the top leaf joints under an inch or two of soil. The plant will look like it’s lying down for only a day or two, but the stem will curve toward the light and you won’t be able to tell that it was lying down. (new roots will grow along the stem and increase plant vigor It may even send up new plant shoots from the joints). Water it all well. Give it a little miracle grow or “blue koolaid” a few times as it grows. (The Store brand of 10-10-10 mixture is great) Check your garden daily. Pick off bugs and kill them. Crush tomato horned worms. Shoot the deer and rabbits and roast them on a slow spit as an example to other critters. (Ha! You think I’m kidding!)
Garden fresh produce tastes spectacular. Once you develop an appetite for it, you’ll realize that it isn’t so hard to produce. You’ll find varieties that do better than others. You’ll get exercise and sunshine.
And when all is said and done, you might, you just might, maybe need to know how to grow your own food. Now is a much better time to start than later.
Feel free to ask questions and make comments and tell all about your own garden and BY ALL MEANS GIVE ADVICE!
Now, I’m going out to harvest the asparagus.
7 Comments
Thanks for the salsa recipe. Regarding the arc story. I am so sad that Machu (am I spelling it right?) has to drown. I had never considered that of course many innocent children were lost in the flood. How sad. But with the adults so wicked, maybe it was best. Long ago, the Lord made it right of course.
Pat Arnold
we can't plant outdoors for another month here, but we started ours in egg cartons last week. One thing we never know is if we are giving them enough/too much water.
It's very hard to give egg carton seedlings too much water. Try taking a tack and punching holes in the cap of a water bottle. It gives the seedlings just the right stream. (Thomas's idea."
Ignore the advice on the shooting of deer and rabbits – the fines will obliterate anyting you save by growing your own vegetables. My advice – leave the vegetable gardening to the local (as opposed to out-of-county) professionals. There's plenty of farmers' markets with good produce. Use the free time to mow your own lawn.
There are lots of types of shooting, Mr. Wildlife Biologist. Paintball, airsoft, sling shots all have their merits. It's true I don't own a suitable firearm for actually killing an animal, but then again, if I did, who enforces such infractions and where do I go to read the laws that govern shooting animals on my own property? I ask this sincerely because if rabbits infest my garden, I'll feel no remorse shooting them.
As for not growing my own vegetables, I am not willing to give up the pleasure of self-suffiency or the joy of watching growing things and life cycles. If the drought persists, farmers won't have a marketable crop to bring to the farmers' markets. I can spot water my little vegetable patch, even in a drought. If the farmers have a good crop, with transportation costs rocketing, they'll have plenty of local markets to sell to. The cost of vegetables is up 50% in the last month according to the US farm bureau. As the ant said to the grasshopper, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
yes, but how often?
And it's more convenient to pick some tomatoes right before dinner than to drive to the store and buy some. I do love though, that my favorite grocery store buys produce from the farmer that lives right next to the elementary school in our neighborhood. Course, we could buy it from his garage too, which ever is more convenient. As for me, I'll do both, grow and buy.