I am awful at following through: especially with the
garden. I plan the garden all fall and
winter long, I am meticulous about getting all the seeds in the ground, but
when the weeds start coming up alongside the plants, I lose all motivation to
continue with the garden. This happens
every year.
Case in point, this is what our garden looks like right now.
What a mess. I am
extremely embarrassed at what I have allowed the garden to become.
Todd was helping me this year by tilling the ground and
planting seeds with me. He even put weed
block in two rows but never got around to putting it in between the other 12
rows. I cannot blame him – I’m just as
bad. Other things came up that took up nearly
every weekend of our spring and early summer.
We had an anniversary (which I am not sorry for neglecting the garden
for a weekend get-away with my husband), two out of town weddings within 5
weeks, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July, adjusting to a newmember of the family and trying to maintain our home to name just a few. Not to mention we have had so much rain here,
the weeds are thriving.
I enjoy planning and
planting the garden. I don’t enjoy the
weeding and maintenance.
Solution: Mow it down and plan for next year. Yes, it kills me to think about all of the
time and work we have wasted, but this large garden is just too much for
us. We learned a very valuable lesson
this year.
I already have a plan for next year’s garden. I can guarantee you that it will be one word:
simple! There will be very few “fu-fu”
plants going into the ground and the seeds that we purchase will all be
heirloom seeds. We will grow only what
we eat an abundance of: the three sisters
(corn, green
beans and squash), cucumbers and tomatoes (in pots). We are looking to maximize
produce in the space we have. Depending
on how our melon does this year, we may decide to plant one variety of annual
fruit. Just the thought of planting and
sowing these 5 vegetables eases my mind because I know how to plant and harvest
each variety and I know the abundance each of these vegetables provides.
I found a great resource of teachable moments for little
ones that explains about the three sisters and gives many learning opportunities
for children to prepare soil, plant seeds, grow and sow the vegetables, save
seeds and start again the next year. I
will be using this source myself next year!
For now, we are focusing on weeding the red raspberry patch as well as
watching our grape vines grow beautifully over the trellis (and even producing
clusters of grapes!) By weeding the red
raspberry patch, I am hoping to focus my time and energy on keeping the beetles
away, watching the berries begin to form and harvest an abundant crop in the
upcoming months. I also have plans to
get our blueberry bushes (which look like twigs right now), pear trees, cherry
trees and plum trees mulched and ready for the cooler months ahead. I want to make sure these fruits trees stay
healthy so that we get fruit on them next year!
For anyone interested in learning about gardening, please
read this post from New Life on a Homestead which covers the basics of
gardening and how to start! It has a
wealth of information!!
How is your garden
doing this year?
