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A New Season of Gardening Begins
Today I tilled my garden. I bought this house in 2016, so this is my eighth garden here. When I started gardening here, the ground was hardpacked, and tilling it was a great effort. But I’ve added leaves, straw, sawdust, and coffee grounds to the soil over the years, and it has become nice and loose.
I always plant tomatoes, usually 16-20 plants, because they are so much better than store-bought tomatoes. I like Early Girl because they are, wait for it, early tomatoes and bear well. But I also plant several heirloom varieties like Mortgage Lifter, Black Krym, Amish Paste, and San Marzano because I like the unusual tomatoes they yield.
And I plant 10-12 pounds of seed potatoes, enough to give us about three months of potatoes in late summer. Last year I harvested 55 pounds of potatoes with a mix of red Dakota and yellow Kennebec. My early spring crops are several kinds of lettuce, spinach, radishes, and arugula. Last year I tried cabbage and broccoli, but I planted them late and it got hot early, so they went to seed before I could pick any heads.
Gardening is an expression of faith in God. You can plant at the right time, hoe weeds throughout the summer, and water; but you are still dependent on the right temperatures and the right rain to get a good yield.
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Can we have your frig dill recipe? Also regarding peppers, just go to Lowes and buy some already started – I’d buy one Jalapeno and it grew like it was on steroids with no issues all summer. Same with banana peppers.
Potatoes? Beware of leprechauns today……
Did you get zir’s pronouns? Maybe it identifies as a bunch of grapes.
I’m curious about Seed Savers’ Exchange. Do you just buy seeds from them like a seed catalog? Or do you join as a member? Do you contribute seeds?
Did you like the flavor of your cucumbers? I’m looking for a good eating and a good pickling cucumber to plant this year.
Last year I tried to plant sour cherry seeds from a tree that my Mennonite ancestors brought from Russia in 1874, but they didn’t sprout. They are the absolute best sour cherries I have ever tasted, so I would like to try again.
Just order over the internet. You don’t have to be a member, but they do good work. The Exchange might have some tips for sprouting!
The Edmonson cucumbers were great tasting, as was a variety called Japanese Climbers. I always wait too long and they get bigger than the canning ideal. We always use Alton Brown’s refrigerator pickle recipe, it is great.
The printed catalog from the Exchange is a real danger to my wallet! Putting seeds in the freezer for SHTF purposes.
I’m really late to this particular thread but here in West TN the weather is just not cooperating at the moment. It’s either raining or cold. This is year three for us of starting small and working our way up. We at least now have a good planned layout of our garden and as soon as weather permits we’ll be moving some things around. This year we’re adding a couple more raised beds (bringing us up to 5), and it’s giving us enough space that we’re going to attempt some peaches and cream corn (not in the raised beds). Last year we did a bit of a shotgun approach to what we planted, which let us learn so we can be a bit more picky this year since we know what we want. I never would have expected that I’d like gardening, honestly, but it’s become one of the things I most look forward to even though I still don’t really know what I’m doing half the time.
Isn’t amazing how something like gardening can become a pleasure? For me, it’s because I can see the tangible results. When a crop does well, it is so satisfying. And you get to eat your results.
Maybe seek out a Mennonite community and ask them about those sour cherry seeds. There are plenty around-
I’ve got access to more cherry seeds – but I need to try planting again.