You guys. I just can’t get the Virgin Harvest piece together for this northern hemisphere growing season. I appreciate your interest and encouragement. I want to do it and I will. I just…can’t right now. I don’t want to add another thing. I know you know what I mean. This summer feels especially important and I want to pay attention to every brilliant wonder. My kids are kids. Sturdy, effervescent, grubby and full of ideas. There will be space for me to pursue some bigger stuff, time for me to grow, dig, reach and expand. Or not. Either way, I am pursuing, growing, digging, reaching and expanding in the cozy confines of what I have right in front of me. For now.
There was a time when my garden plan was all digitized and darling. I know I have the images uploaded here on the ol’ blog but cannot find them (suddenly understanding why people tag their posts…). This year, it’s scribbles on the back of one of Ruby’s drawings. I keep it magnetized to the side of the fridge. It works just as well.
We dug and fenced in our plot last spring, beginning on Mother’s Day with my rototiller gift. I managed to exceed my own planting expectations but the upkeep was pretty lame. By the time plants grew heaved high and arched with fruit, we were choreographing 17 other home projects. I’d sneak in a weed sesh here and there but, really, I let my garden down. Thankfully, she forgave me.
All that is to say that this year! This year I did it right. I pulled weeds with roots that hung on like a three year old in a tantrum. I started seeds, turned earth, dug paths. It’s legit in 2013.
March 16:
March 31:
April 12:
April 24:
May 28:
June 4:
June 17:
June 20:
June 23:
July 2:
My young plot is already challenging me: squash are puny and yellow, arugula didn’t germinate, I have no idea how to grown corn. But the troubleshooting is perhaps my favorite part. Game on. I study plants, dig out my Master Gardener manual, think, diagnose and make treatment plans. It’s all very much a game and the winner is the one with the keenest eye and the most attentive hand.
My favorite resources:
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food
My Master Gardener’s manual (I cannot recommend this class enough! It’s just awesome. Contact your local extension office to inquire)
Also, I wrote a post about plant diagnostics a few years back: Plant Diagnostics: How to Grow a Green Thumb.
I’ll leave you with our family’s current favorite salad. We’ve been eating it every single night!
Kale Strawberry Salad:
kale
strawberries
spinach
lettuce
parsley
chives
feta cheese
your favorite vinaigrette
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17 Comments
Your garden is lovely and that salad sounds sooo delicious!
1) Love it! I finally have my first legit garden since having kids (I’m doing a catch-up garden post soon soon…).
2) My squash! SAME THING. I planted twice. First time never germinated and I even had them under cloches. My sis-in-law in Gardiner had the same problem.
3) New thing I’m trying this year (even in my short-ass Zone 3 garden): much more successive planting for an extended harvest. I have a “winter garden” that I intend to harvest as late as possible (leeks, kale, rutabaga, parsley, parsnips…). I am SO excited about it. In our area, we tend to have EVERYTHING mature at once. Who wants broccoli in August when you’re up to your eyeballs in summer squash? We’ll see how it goes, but planning for an extended harvest is my new thang. (Inspired in large part by the book, “Year-Round Vegetable Gardener.” LOVE IT.)
4) Cheers : )
WOO! Yay for the garden that looks so healthy and beautiful and full of life! I love seeing the sledding hill in the backdrop, all *not* covered in snow, just waiting to be the center of attention again.
Soon, friend, but not before we get our summer tomatoes.
Gorge plot, as always 🙂
WooWee, Woman, you’ve been doing work! Looks so good.
Enjoy those babies and summer 🙂
Angie
I am SO making that salad. Insane. I made one last week with arugula, feta, and watermelon and nearly hoarded it.
I want to thank you for your original efforts with the virgin harvest a few years ago; I am navigating my third season vegetable gardening with my little girl. It’s puny in comparison, but a lesson learned every year. And I’m excited and challenged and a bit pissed from time to time; but that’s when personal growth happens, right?
For now we are harvesting raspberries, lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs. I just love to see her excitement growing, learning, and harvesting.
P.S. Nice job upcycling those rings from an old whiskey barrel on your pole beans, right?
Garden porn! Love it. The head scratcher for me this year was the beets – planted 20 and got one?!? Everything else is doing great. Even added rain barrels this year!
I understand exactly what you mean about this summer and enjoying what you’ve got in front of you RIGHT NOW! My girls are just a bit ahead of yours and I feel like they are growing so fast if I blink I’ll miss something. I feel like I’ve waited so long to be able to get out and enjoy *together* that if I don’t soak up every second it will dribble through my fingers like water I’ve cupped in my hands. Just today, the three of us hiked 3 miles together and no one needed to be carried, a first, and there were no tears, except for an ant incident. It was so fun!
Your plot, sister, is a vision! My favorites are the pictures in dated order…I love to see that new growth, it always makes me smile. Like a whole body smile. I love that it seems like you’ve got the best of both worlds. You can look out from your plot and see green hills but if you need to run to get some milk it doesn’t take 2 hours.
Enjoy your summer and everything it has to offer! Here’s to yummy salads, jump ropes in the dirt and the joy that is our country’s birthday.
Jaim
Your first paragraph made me tear up. Beautiful sentiment about important, special stuff. I’m trying to do the same with what’s in front of me this summer – it all does fly by, doesn’t it? And your garden? Awesome, dig! My time and energy for the garden varies year by year too, but this year is a good one so far. I love seeing your beautiful space. Best of luck with it… and with all that you value and nurture this summer.
What a green dream your garden is!
It’s not fair that summer is so short and so delicious.
Enjoy!
I’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months now and I’m so glad I stumbled upon it. I actually came here from Enjoying the Small Things. I really enjoy your straight forward point of view and beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing with us. BTW… this sentence particularly cracks me up: “I pulled weeds with roots that hung on like a three year old in a tantrum.”
(I have a 1.5 and 3 year old, so I know about tantrums). 🙂
Have a wonderful July 4th!
You have such an amazing garden. Your blog has
Inspired me to start gardening. Unfortunately, I have to come up
With a mobile gardening idea as we move so often. (Military) Love your recipes! Love your words Nici!
I’m all out of words right now, but I really love your gardeny fervor. It’s contagious.
I also appreciate the way you so willingly bloom along with what’s right in front of you.
You are a wonder.
Your veg patch is just awesome x
The joy that comes from battling (and conquering) a garden ((actually, sometimes joy comes from the failure of a garden as well!)) is something that I don’t think can be gained in any other manner! Gorgeous garden … even if you have scrawny squash!
Nici,
The garden may not yet be giving you all you want – because it takes time to learn your sun, your soil, your plants – but from this angle, after a week mountaineering above 3000m in snow and ice, your garden brings me back down to earth! It’s looking LUSH.
Best wishes from Switz,
Ali
Catching up… your garden is SWEET Burb! I can’t wait to see it in person…11 days and counting!
xoxo, Mom
What a beautiful garden! You are such an inspiration to me and my little plants. This year I seem to only be able to grow corn. (I find watering the crap out of it is best & the monsoons we’ve been having save me lots of hose work)
I love peeking into your world on IG and visiting your blog. Thank you for sharing so much of yourself.
Melinda (melisgarden)