All right, so I cheated! I bought plants already started at Home depot. No they are not heirlooms or organic. No, they did not come from a super special nursery. They are probably Monsanto starts or Genetically altered, but this year I do not care even one bit. I was not going to have a garden at all, so the fact that I have something in the ground that may end up on my table is OK with me. At least I know that it grew in my back yard and it will be vine ripened.

This is what I bought and put in the ground today:

3 cucumbers
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
12 green beans
1 butternut squash
1 zuchini

I already have 2 tomato volunteers, nasturtiums,
a bunch of oregano, blackberry vines and raspberry vines

I planted 5 dahlia bulbs (I know that's not what they are called but I can't remember the name)

I plan to add
lavender
chamomile
and mint

So next year I will do it right, but this year, I won't sweat the small stuff.

Unintentional Gardening

How can a person garden unintentionally?

Well, the winter has come and gone. June is in full bloom, and I had decided that the garden was going fallow this year. My winter and spring were crazy with children coming and going, the birth of our first grand baby and new business ventures. I took two trips: one in March to see Kai, Seth and Jefri, the other in April to move Sarah back to Oklahoma. All those plans of  getting the garden ready for a well planned spring garden had fallen by the wayside. The weeds had taken over in the garden. I had given up hopes of having a garden at all this year.

Then, I started watching the gardens of my friends on facebook. I moaned,"I don't have time this year. I have classes to teach and lessons to plan. I have 40 hours of work each week on top of that. I try to keep up my ministry opportunities and my relationships require more time than I give." I watched other gardens grow and wished, but pushed it to the back of my mind.. One young friend had started a garden. Her cucumbers needed a trellis. "I have a trellis you can have," I volunteered."I'm not going to use it anyway." The unintentional gardening began.

I ventured into the overgrown garden. Trying not to look and be disgusted at the state of things, I battled the 5-foot tall, gargantuan, prickly plants. Weeds grow very well in healthy soil with no water. The trellis, of course, was in the back corner of all the mess. Courageously I fought with the plants to release the trellis and turned  to escape. Then, I saw it, one scrawny, starving, thirsty, tomato volunteer in one of the raised beds! I didn't even have tomatoes in that bed last year. "Poor thing," I thought. "too bad I'm not gardening this year."

That evening I told Fred that I had braved the garden gate to get the trellis for Amy. He chimed in, "Oh, did you see the tomatoes?"
"Yes," I mumbled.
"Did you see the red one?" he asked.
"There is fruit on that plant?" I asked in amazement. I hadn't looked closely enough to notice any real growth. I felt guilty enough that the weeds had taken over. I didn't want this plant calling to me in the night.
"There sure is. I saw it through the garden fence and started sprinkling it with water now and then. It has a few that are ripening now."

Dropping what I was doing , I bolted out to the garden. Sure enough, buried under the weeds a branch of the lone tomato plant was bearing fruit. Now, I can shrug my shoulders at a volunteer tomato plant that is amongst the weeds. It is actually a weed itself. Once that plant has fruit, however, the story changes in my mind. I couldn't just leave it strangling and alone if it had babies!

So the digging began. Four hours in the garden yesterday afternoon, saw the tomato plant propped up and properly watered along with another that was discovered in a pot buried by the garden gate. One of the raised beds is cleared and ready for planting with drip system installed. All of the gigantic weeds in the raised bed area are cleared and the dahlias that Seth sent last Mothers' Day are in the ground nearby. I hope they come up. They were pretty sad and withered up.

So, the gardening madness has begun, whether I have time or not. I can't abandon the tomatoes that decided to grow in my plot. They want to be there. They want to give me tomatoes. Certainly I must accommodate them.Today I will break all of my gardening rules and go to Home Depot and buy already started plants to put in the other raised bed, zucchini, green beans, peppers and some herbs. Since it is so late in the season and I am not really gardening anyway, I won't feel bad about it. Next year I will start it the right way in spring before the weeds take over.

How Time Flies!

Months have gone by since my last turn in the garden. The weeds are taking over and the left over plants are spent. Now is the time for rest in the garden. Now is the time for renewing my plan. Spring will be here in the blink of an eye.

The fall garden that I planted never came up. I didn't have time to baby the seedlings. I would like to think that there will be a winter garden, but I need to be realistic in my plans.  I will take this time to clean, rearrange, simplify and prepare for an early spring.

I have decided to plant one tomato plant next year. Oh how hard that is to write. One tiny little tomato plant? Can I do it? I went from 5 the first year to 3 last year. I had too many tomatoes and no time to tend them or can them. One plant is all I need, but... Simplify, simplify is my new mantra.

My garden goals

• Use well the square foot plots that I have, and I should have all that I need. 
• Plant only those things that I know I will eat.
• Compost and reuse what I can.
• Set up the drip system on a timer to alleviate the stress and schedule of watering.
• Spend time in the garden relaxing and enjoying the work of my hands.

Chickens are still a part of the plan. Hopefully I can get the yard ready while I am rearranging the garden. I need a raised coop, a fence and a gate. That is doable if I work on it over the winter.

Simplify and use my resources well in every area of my life. Too much stuff equals too much to do. My garden continues to be my tutor. 

Lots of flowers but no fruit

So it's the end of August and the garden is waning. This year was better than last, but not what I had hoped. I did get tomatoes, peppers, carrots, green beans, squash and a couple of ears of corn. The cucumbers, pumpkin, and berries were nonexistent. There were Strawberries, those that the bugs didn't get anyway. I guess I set my sights too high each year. The fact that I get anything at all is fun and delicious.

I have begun my fall garden. It is filled with salad greens and carrots. I will keep only one box growing along with some squash in the back bed. I don't have much time to garden in the fall so I will realign my drip system and get a timer for it. We'll see how it goes.

Fall Gardening

This morning I spent time in the garden cleaning up for the fall. The corn stalks are down, weeds are pulled, and irrigation drip system rearranged. I will have to spend some more time on the irrigation.  I know there must be a more efficient way to get the watering done.

My boxes are pretty much empty right now.  I have the last of the peppers ripening on the bushes, a square of carrots maturing and two squares of beans just beginning to sprout in one box and two eggplant bushes in the other box.  Today I planted lettuce, parsley and cilantro in that box. It has been such a mild summer I thought I would give these cool weather crops an early start.  I hope that doesn't mean that the weather is about to change to triple digits!

I'm disappointed with the pumpkin I planted.  It got plenty of blossoms but no fruit. Same thing happened last year. Maybe  I need to plant two vines together next year so they can pollinate each other. No pumpkins again this Thanksgiving :(

The melons are slow to produce as well.  I have no fruit from them but lots of blossoms.  The bees and wasps  are there in abundance but so far no fruit. The cucumbers are in a bad place this year. They are not happy with the sun exposure or the water drainage.  I'll have to find a new solution for them.  I can do another planting soon. They shouldn't mind the cooler weather.

Everything is slowing down, getting ready for fall. Fall is a busy time for me. Maybe I will only maintain one box of salad fixings.  The other spaces can rest for the winter until I get the bug again in the spring.

Tomato Frenzy

Well, it's been a while.  I've been much too busy to blog  or garden for that matter. The garden is producing but it shows the lack of care.  I need to remember that August is my busy month, but the garden needs a lot of attention in August. I am very glad that I didn't invest in chickens.  I just don't have time for them.

So today is tomato frenzy day.  I have pounds of tomatoes that will go bad if I don't do something today.  So I will peel, and boil, and can them. I don't have anyplace to be today, but lots of jobs around the house. The tomatoes can boil while I get the rest of the work done around here.

There are also peppers to chop, and corn to husk. Wow, I better get off this blog and get busy!

First squash!

This week the squash took off!  I have two zucchini almost ready to pick. The yellow squash is just forming now. Naomi's pumpkin plant is taking off, too. No fruit yet, but it is getting big.

 The snap peas are about done so they will come out next week sometime. I still get several off every day, so I'll let it go for a day or two more. I plan to put melons in their place, but have not decided for sure. Cucumbers are my other choice.

Naomi and Eli came and got some carrots, beets and an onion yesterday, They were excited to see what had grown under ground. They helped me find some strawberries, too. Eli really likes to hunt for them. When he found little ripe ones he said, "Oh look at the tiny one. It's so cute!" This is all new to them. I hope they enjoy it enough to continue gardening when they are older.

There are lots of green tomatoes on the vines. I hope the warm weather ripens them soon.  I hate to buy tomatoes at the store.  They are flavorless and expensive. Patience is needed when gardening.