Thursday, May 17, 2012

How does your garden grow?

Forever stuck in my mind is the nursery rhyme:
     "Let's marry" said the cherry.
     "Why me?" said the pea.
     "Cuz you're sweet" said the beet
     "Say you will" said the dill
     "Think it over" said the clover.....

And YES, I know the remaining 36 verses!

     Over the years have honed my gardening skills. Some of my methods are unconventional. Some are handed down tips. And some I just learned as I went. There were definitely many failures. But just as many successes spurred me on.
   I think I just absorbed a love of the dirt and the whirrrrr of the mower. My Dad was forever puttering in the yard, My Grandpa was a master tomato grower and my Grammy always had geraniums in buckets on the stairs in San Francisco.
My dad and me
   My first flowers were Nasturtiums. It remains a favorite. We planted them in like the first grade at school as a Mother's Day project. On the way home with my precious plant, my brother knocked it out of my hand and the pot broke. I think I've been growing them ever since just to prove a point!
  One year my hubby brought home 'seed' potatoes from one of his customers. I planted them with care and hilled. And hilled. and hilled some more. Fall came. We went to dig up the potatoes...and imagine my surprise to find out they were Fingerlings! Nice, pretty, fancy, itty bitty potatoes.
  One year we had potatoes as big as my head!

I usually plant a double row of corn all the way around my garden, leaving little 'gates' on all four sides. The first year I did it I called it Corn-wallis...It wasn't so funny after I had to explain Cornwallis.
Corn-Wallis
  The cornwall protects everything else. It can blow gale force winds and nothing on the inside is ruined. The corn just stands back up. It also helps to keep it a little more humid in the square, which makes my plants happy. You can also plant shade loving plants near the corn.
  Hubby likes hot radishes, so they are planted with the onions.  I make my tomatoes grow bigger and sturdier by pinching off all the bottom leaves and most of the first blooms as well.
   An old kettle BBQ is a planter for my carnations and petunias. And We have a HOT PINK Adirondack chair and ottoman one of the boyz made in school. ( he swore he would take it when he moved....he didn't so now it's mine) That's where hubby sits to watch me garden.
                    For me I think it is the satisfaction of knowing 'I did it!'
   In a later post I will have my favorite pickled beet recipe and one for corn relish.
     Some tips I have learned..*Never plant a full 25 ft row of lettuce at one time. You will never eat it all!
* Do not forget your potatoes in the barn...They WILL freeze solid in the winter in ND * As in the field, you should rotate your 'crops' in the garden. * When you are stressed, you can work it off in the garden by beating the hoe on the ground and imagining who is annoying you!

This how part of my garden grows!

Happy Gardening!
Katy


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