While I won't get prizes for the tidiest, weed free garden, I might get the prize for enjoying my garden on several levels.
Here are a few...
1. I have discovered the relaxing and healthy aspects of earthing/grounding. So I spend as much barefoot time as I can in the garden.
2. We have a very elderly friend who has gardened all her life as a family business and even when she entered an assisted living care center she found a way to garden nearby. She told us how special Ogallala strawberries are. They are smaller and harder to pick than mosts varieties, however, they make up for it in flavor and a long growing season. Ogalalla strawberries produce from June to October and sometimes November. Many of my suppers have been spent simply eating fresh strawberries in the strawberry patch. They are never better than fresh picked.
3. The garden is ever changing and I often go out without my gathering basket and end up using my shirt to bring in the bounty. Take this shirt full of peas for example:
Blueberries
Bintje Potatoes
See 8-30-14 post for more details.
See 8-30-14 post for more details.
We can make a gourmet salad from our garden from March thru November because of the volunteers.
This photo was taken in March and even the volunteer squash starts made it into the salad.
Each spring we purchase heirloom plants, especially tomatoes and cucumbers from our neighbor's greenhouse. As frosty weather hits in October or November, we save the unripened tomatoes in the garage and let them ripen on their own. Each year we are still eating our own tomatoes in January.
A few years back, when my husband was having the home rewired, he had the electricians add a flood light so I can garden after dark. I've enjoyed that a lot when the summer is hot and I want to stay out after dark.
In the photo just above, you can see the french parsley given to me by a neighbor several years ago which reseeds itself every year, the garden cloches to protect early starts and the three peach trees that showed up this spring as volunteers from the peach seeds I dumped last fall. There were about 30 trees this spring. We saved three and pulled the rest. I love my volunteer garden. Less work and more produce. It means earlier spring lettuce, spinach and kale and this year it meant I have lettuce in November.
