Journal of a Gardener

September 9

After five months of journaling I am closing out this first time experience.  It seems mundane in some ways.  It has still been a good time of learning and sharing.  Because of our move in July and because I grew a bigger garden than ever, it has been more work than in previous years, especially the years when I used grow beds.  If you have responses to the blog, send them to nwallace7265@comcast.net.

September 9

After lunch we visited the raised beds at Culpepper Place and found a half dozen small tomatoes and some cukes and peppers.  This afternoon Patty went to the garden while I mowed the lawn.  She heard and watched a hummingbird moving in and out of the pine tree.  She brought back some small tomatoes, some okra and a wash pail of purple hull peas.  We shelled them after supper.  Only okra, tomatoes, peppers and peas remain.  We have too much winter squash in the garage and the second bedroom.  Barter is in order.

September 8

No garden visit.  The turnip greens have not come up – too deep and not enough moisture is my guess for the weakness.  Since we now live 3 ½ half miles away I will not try to do a fall garden.  I may talk with Morris and see if he wants me to sow a cover crop.  The zinnias and sunflowers are strong and healthy.

September 7

No garden visit

September 6

We went to the garden in the afternoon and got a modest harvest.  I brought in a few more butternuts and pulled up the more squash vines and the arugula and lettuce that was still hanging on.

September 5 

We got the regular harvest this morning.  We gave some veggies to Mike, the builder of the 3 seasons room.

September 4

No garden visit, but using two shelf boards and some bricks I made shelves for up to about 150 jars of canned food and placed the shelves in the coat closet (the closet that is closest to the kitchen – there is still good room for hanging coats.  We placed more than 100 jars on the shelves.

September 3

We got okra, beans peas, peppers and 4 butternut squashes this morning.  Patty canned 4 quarts of beans

September 2

No visit to garden today.

September 1

Our morning visit to the garden yielded a good harvest of okra, peas and beans.  I cut the last two cantaloupes and found one too ripe.  Patty cooked okra and tomatoes and green beans and made 10 pints of tomato salsa.

August 31

The only garden activity we had was to give some okra to a friend at church.

August 30

We measured 1.2 inches of rain in the gauge this morning.  We got a big harvest since we missed yesterday.  I picked the last two cantaloupes.  I gathered a few more butternuts where the vines were dying and the stems turning.  We have cut 26 or 27 and there are another dozen immature fruits coming if the vines endure.  When we came home Patty canned 5 pints and froze 4 packages of beans.  She also made 6 pints of salsa.

August 29

We were away from the garden today, but a good rain shower came in the afternoon.

August 28

We did a quick harvest of okra and tomatoes and traveled to Tennessee to visit friends and family.  We took okra, beans, tomatoes and a couple winter squashes to Patty’s sister.

August 27

After a good harvest we went to my sister-in-law’s and traded some veggies for half a paper grocery bag of pears.  Patty made 21 quarts of grape juice in the afternoon.  I took the peas with me to visit with my parents and engaged them in shelling the peas.  Mom still has the skill on her hard drive.  She was quick.  Dad was not so fast.  It was a fun project. 

August 26

We had a modest harvest in the morning.  In the afternoon I took my pruners and cut the Concord grapes from the arbor at the home place.  They are full of seeds and there was a lot waste, but I brought home a half bushel.  Patty canned several pints of tomatoes and okra.

August 25

Still no rain, and yet we got a bumper harvest today from purple hull peas, limas, green beans and okra.  I cut two more butternut squashes.  Patty spent much of the afternoon processing Christmas pickles and shelling and freezing peas and limas.  I cut our first butternut squash.  It had been penetrated by a grub.  I was able to cut out damaged part and use the other 90%.  Patty micro-waved the two halves for a few minutes – until the flesh was soft to probe.  It was sweet.  All we added was some butter.

August 24

No visit to the garden today

August 23

We went to the garden in the middle of the afternoon and saw everything looking very wilted in the hot sun.  The okra and peas were surprising in their yield.  This evening Jeff, my nephew helped me to put some pictures into this journal. 

August 22

We had a strong harvest, but still have not had rain since July 31.  I made some pictures of the sunflowers and pan shots of the veggies.  Then we went to David’s garden and got some big orange cucumbers to use in making Christmas pickles. 

August 21

No visit to the garden today

August 20

It was cloudy and cool this morning.  We picked okra, tomatoes, peppers, lima beans and green beans.  I cut the whole crop of acorn squashes (three hills for a total of 18).  Grubs had begun to eat on two of them.  I pulled up the vines and hauled them away in the wheelbarrow to the burn pile.  Sunflowers and zinnias look great.  The Shasta daisies did not germinate and we only got one cosmos plant.  I chopped out what was planted as peppermint, but what must have been a weed or catnip.  It certainly wasn’t mint as the seed package stated.  The stems were square and the leaves looked like mint, but the aroma and taste weren’t right.