Chewing the fat

I have known the man who runs several of the local farm stands near my home for a good many years and I have gotten friendly with Rick and his sister, Pam. We were talking about how stupid some of the "gardeners" are that do not hale from this area. Rick said that if you didn't include lime as a necessary element you "weren't gonna grow nothing" here.

Truer words were never said. I know that I am not the greatest organic gardener, but I also know that I am a pretty fair gardener with a fair amount of knowledge of gardening methods, fertilizers,and bug treatments. I experiment and keep track of what grows best in my area of the country and I am aware of how the seasons affect the vegetables we grow and when.

Rick and I laughed about my acquaintance's "organic grower" boyfriend who knows nothing about when we grow different vegetables and how we grow them. We also laughed about how stupid this man is that he does not understand that you don't plant over the septic tank and how you have to be intimate with lime, epsom salts, eggshells, and the other things Southern growers know from the years we have been taught these things by older Southern gardeners.

Little things like not putting vegetables out before the last frost in the spring, getting things covered before the first fall frost, when to put lime in the soil and when to harvest. Rick was telling me the current thinking for the farmers is to put the slow acting lime in the soil in the fall and it will be better than fast acting in the spring.

Now the dolomite lime is something I plan to do to my boxes this fall when the plantings are all done and it is time to plan next season's crops. Because I will be starting in February with sugar snap peas, cabbage family crops, like broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I plan to plant radishes, lettuces and whatever else I think I can grow.

Eventually, I hope to have a thirty or forty acre farm with some small amount of acreage for horses, a full fledged mushroom farm, a ten acre orchard of pecans, Hicans (this is a hybrid nut that is half hickory and half pecan) that taste like black walnuts, an experimentation for white truffles, and a ten to twenty acre farm with Grow Boxes and self watering facilities.

If that occurs in Georgia or South Carolina, you have to be certified as an organic gardener. If you sell more than $5,000 in Georgia, you have to be approved by the Department of Agriculture and your facility has to meet state standards. You are not allowed to sell without the approval and the Agriculture Department can make your farm off limits if you do funky things like the stupid boyfriend who pees in his compost pile.

I know I can get the farm and the certification in South Carolina, because I want to sell to the restaurants in the greater Charleston area. I want to be able to retire and practice my avocation of growing and not my vocation of being a CPA.

I sincerely hope I can make my dream a reality then I can spend my days meditating in the garden.