We've gotten bigger

I wanted to let all of my readers know that I started a new blog for the 2011 planting seasons. Come read the new adventures at Sherry's Upper and Lower Forty.

Yall come, you hear.

Seed Catalogs

It is time to spend quality time with the new year's seed catalogs. Every serious gardener eagerly awaits the procession of seed catalogs that come to us in the mail and online.

This year the organic push keeps marching on. Everybody wants their share of organic foods and I always wonder where they have been for the last thirty plus years. We are pushing forty years with organic seeds and it gets easier every day to find the sources.

On my coffee table are some of the better seed houses that serve the organic grower. Johnny's, Territorial, Parks, Burpee, Garden's Alive and a few I do not remember requesting the catalogs.

There are some really intriguing newbies this year. A white pickling cucumber, more heirloom tomatoes, and others will find their way into my garden. We also plan to fight the bugs naturally with praying mantis egg case, lace wings, lady bugs and nematode injections. This crew of bugs can do more than a spray can any day.

As I have said, my garden is always in a constant state of experimentation. We will try a different design of caging this year because we actually had a problem with some of the plants being too heavy for their supports. The garden will also be on the move this year because of the problem with the fall rotation of the earth.

The best gardens are well planned with a little common sense sifted in for problems. All gardens will suffer bugs, too much heat, too little water or too much water. The thing to remember is that you have to go with the flow.

Our hope is that we will not have as much problem with the help of our little beneficial bugs. Twenty years ago my youngest daughter had to make up something to help the world. Erika and I put our heads together and came up with a combination of a ladybug and a praying mantis, and Erika named him Petey. This little fellow had the bright red wings with black spots like a lady bug and the body of a praying mantis. Erika had to make a model of this little guy and she won the contest in her elementary school. Petey then found his way to a Smithsonian exhibition before being returned to our home.

I wonder if we could actually cross a ladybug and a praying mantis. What a lively garden that would be with all of them hunting bugs down. A dream yes, but remember all hybrids are a cross between two somethings.

So Much To Digest

The garden plans for this year involve so many different items. What to grow, who to buy the seeds from, how we are going to get the proper germination, what we plan to change in our potting mix and on and on.

As I so often say, my garden is my giant science experimentation. I am a scientist at heart and wanted to be a doctor. You ask why am I a certified public accountant. It is because I worked and went to school and could not afford to do all of the science an undergraduate degree in microbiology would have required.

Back in the days of the dinosaurs, when I was a little girl, we did not know from student loans and the information was not so readily accessible. It is unfortunate because I love science. I obviously passed this gene along to my youngest son because he loves science and math and is going to be a nuclear engineer.

As an avid reader of both pleasure books and non-fiction books, I devour what knowledge I can get and love to pass it along to others. I love to try new things and I am the mad scientist in my garden and my kitchen.

Baking and cooking are kind of science projects on their own. It requires measurement and chemical reactions in order to bake.

We know some of the changes we are going to make. One is we are going to make a rack for the squash to lean on and make the racks during the winter. They are designed out of wood and metal concrete reinforcing wire or the pvc garden trellis. When the squash plant grows through the 2 or 3 inch hole, their tender body can lie on the wire. This will allow the fruit to drop down and harvesting will be a matter of clipping the squash free from the vine.

We have decided we want more substantial plant supports and will have bases made so that we can incorporate some of the Grow Box support on our bases. We just need to help support our healthy plants better.

I love the ability to have a garden anywhere and one of my clients madee some Garden Boxes a present to her gardener husband. I then made three of the Grow Boxes a gift to one of my daughters and son-in-laws. When you love having dirt under your nails and being outside in the fresh air, it is hard not to be outside.

If you can not

To Everything There Is a Season

There is a general philosophy among people about a "saving remnant" of people, religious views, and other things. I am beginning to believe that is true of gardens.

Many things winter over like onions, garlic, shallots and the like. In my case, my late planted sugar snap pea seeds are poking their little stems up in the seven grow boxes that were planted in late October or early November. They just seem to be thumbing their little stem noses at the cold and are trying to tell us that spring is around the corner.

We all know that spring is not until late March and for some of the United States it can be as late as May or June. What the sugar snaps are showing is hope and faith that the seasons will change and we will be back on the production mode.

Now,everything is not like that. I learned that cauliflower is cold sensitive and did not fair well in our very cold, Atlanta area winter. Many people keep saying that it shouldn't be this cold here, but my husband and I grew up in this area and we remember many frigid winters.

I believe that the weather is more cyclical then we want to believe and I think some of the global warming is a cycle. That is not to say that we do not all need to contribute to a more green society over our great planet.

My oldest daughter and I were discussing growing heirloom tomatoes and an anti-inflammatory diet today. I was amazed by her in depth knowledge on the subject of the diet and definitely think she is on to something. She loves heirloom tomatoes much like her mother does and we talked about the grafting project I plan to start soon. Heirlooms require a little more tending and give us back the most flavorful fruits, but their flaws are they are less disease and fungi resistant and do not have the stamina of hybrids.

I am so glad that my daughters and sons share my love of the garden. They have been fun to watch grow into wonderful adults with varied interests, just as I watch my vegetables grow in the garden.

Isn't life a wonderful thing?

So Long Garden

The bitter cold that the spiders forecast all summer long is here and my garden is pretty much gone. With freezing temps well into the single and double digits, all the veggies are showing the signs of cold weather stress.

The remaining tomatoes have died and the fruit on the vines froze. The broccoli and cauliflower leaves are showing signs of freeze burn. The sugar snaps are still green and the lettuce and spinach seem to be enjoying the cold.

It is sad to see the end of the growing season and yet there are sugar snap peas starting to sprout in the grow boxes I recently replanted. Apparently, there is always a saving grace.

I had a great time this year with my garden and it successfully produced about 325 pounds of vegetables. I am proud of the garden's success.

All I can say is "Wait until next year, we will be onward and up the ante!"

Home Grown Broccoli

We picked our very first broccoli last week and we cooked and ate it. It is amazing how different something fresh from the garden tastes versus something you buy in the grocery store. I never knew home grown tasted so good.

Broccoli from my garden, I can not speak for other gardeners, has a much milder taste than the grocery store's broccoli. I even said to the produce man at my local chain that my broccoli was bigger than his.

Look, I am not sporting for a fight, but I am a real good gardener and I now know that if I can control most of the elements I can grow great quantities of good vegetables. I am so happy with my 2010 garden because it really was fun.

Wait until next year, I have changes in mind that will make it a much better yielding garden and one of my changes involves the summer squash. Look out doxies, you may have to eat a lot more squash next year.

I really don't think they will mind.

The Day After

Thanksgiving is over and I have no idea what I will do with all of the food left over. We had way too much and we were all full.

The one area we had no problem "selling the items", as my father-in-law used to say, was the pies. They were a big hit and so was the squash casserole, sweet potatoes, turkey, dressing, etc. However, there is only so much of that stuff that you can eat.

We included some patty pan squash in our casserole as a symbolic offering from my garden. It was great to have the children home and it is also great to have the peace return to our abode.

I can truly say that having friends and family at our table is the best blessing of all.

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. This is the day for giving thanks for all G-d has given to us, both good and bad. My friend Kurt Stone once gave the sermon to his congregation that sometimes we pray for something and we get it and other times we don't, that just means that G-d said yes or no.

This year was a resounding yes for me and my garden. Yes to being outside, yes to watching the young plants grow, yes to meditation time, yes to a very bountiful harvest,and yes to being a gardener again. I would love to be in the yes line again next year for a lot of reasons.

It was pointed out to me very early on that we can live and look out for ourselves and others or we can live only for ourselves. Trust me when I say that it is a lot more fun to share than be selfish.

I have always told my friends and family that you can throw dirt into that turned off fan and you can throw flowers. Someone will come and flip the switch and it all comes back to you. It is your choice whether you get flower petals or dirt in your face.

Make the right choice and you will find out giving is much more rewarding than receiving.

A Time For Thanks

As Thanksgiving draws close, as the cool weather sets in, I can't help but be thankful for all of G-d's bounty. All organic gardeners are believers in a higher power and if you listen carefully to the words that flow out of their mouths, you will understand.

If you have ever stood and talked to a farmer, the words will be something like this. "Yes, we had a good year and G-d or the Lord blessed us with ample rain, plenty of not so hot days and a good harvest." If the response is "yes, we had a hard summer with too much heat and not enough rain, maybe we will be blessed with a better crop next year."

My family always sits around the table at Thanksgiving and each shares what we are thankful for this year. One year, my daughter was proposed to by my wonderful son-in-law. My mother (mother-in-law in reality) turned to me and said "did he just ask her to marry him?" and I said yes with tears rolling down my checks.

This year, as we sit and tell what we are thankful for, I don't think they will give me enough time to tell all I want to be on my list. I have had the opportunity to be back in the sunshine, to watch young things grow, to enjoy the bounty the careful tending yielded, and enjoy eating what we brought to the table.

All six children of my children also reflect the careful tending and the loving touch. Bill and I have fought in one way or the other for all of them. I have fought the school systems, the teachers when wrong, and predictions for their future.

Sometimes it amazes me how flip teachers and administrators can be when a child is involved. They open their mouths before they engage their brains. My oldest daughter was told she would never be able to write and multiple published books and articles later that she has written, yes she can.

Our grown children bring to the table all that they have learned and all that they have been able to produce. Two of my daughters give of themselves everyday and teach school in most spectacular ways. My second daughter is one of the best AP teachers in Florida and my youngest daughter leads her fifth grade team at a Title One school.

My oldest son tries to treat his customers as he would want to be treated, my middle son gives his all to his teammates,his friends,and family and my youngest son is going to re-engineer the things the world needs and make it a better world. I am such a proud mother.

Without my husband, Bill, there wouldn't have been a garden this year. Like in so many years gone by, he helped with the preparation of the beds. This year, he diligently kept the grow boxes full of water and made sure the boxes had the room to grow properly.

My husband and I will share our fortieth anniversary in a few weeks and yet it feels like yesterday. Yesterday when there weren't any children,spouses or significant others, grandchildren or even a garden.

Our only grandchild of the human variety is our grandson,Eric, and he came as part of the package with my son-in-law Abe. It was a two for one and how lucky we were to get them. The forty year mark seems so easy when you write it, but it takes work like the garden to achieve the rewards.

So much sowing and so much reaping. So much to be happy and thankful for even in these troubled times. May peace come to all of us and bring with it a bountiful harvest in the coming year.

Keep on rolling along

When this whole adventure with the Grow Boxes started, I tried it because of the guarantee that if I was unsatisfied with the boxes I could get my money back. These people must be joking, because it would take a Neanderthal with no brain and the inability to read to not be able to grow in these containers. Since I am neither, I have been greatly successful with my boxes so far this year.

Now, with 320 pounds 2 ounces of vegetables so far, the only question is if some of the 2010 garden continues into 2011, which year do I attribute the extra to. I have had a great time in the garden and enjoyed my own food grown by my own hands so much. It would be wonderful if the whole world could do something like this and participate in the fun.

My little great nephew got tremendous pleasure out of picking tomatoes from my plants this summer and hopefully we will pick more next year. As far as my garden, I have vegetables and spices to go through the winter thanks to a greenhouse and a cold frame.

You might be lucky enough and Santa will drop off a few Grow Boxes so you can try them. For me,my experiment next summer will continue on. I will try some new treatments for heirloom tomatoes like grafting and growing my own transplants instead one buying ones I was not happy with.

It amazes me that my daughter Kimmie, who ate only a few vegetables as a child, really loves Patty Pan squash from my garden. Better look out doxies, somebody wants to steal your stash.