{"id":545,"date":"2011-07-13T16:16:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T20:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wednesday-july-13-2011\/"},"modified":"2011-07-13T16:16:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T20:16:00","slug":"wednesday-july-13-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wednesday-july-13-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday July 13, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last time my sister, Beth, was here she breezed through the door and said, “Well, it looks like your thumb turned a little bit green!”  Best compliment I’d had all day.  <\/span>

I’m a far cry from a master gardener.  More like a shoot-in-the-dark-hope-to-hit something kind of person with a hoe and a watering can.  But this year, I have loved it more than I ever did before.  I think I am *finally* learning a few of the hidden secrets.  Did you ever notice that when you ask a gardener, “how do you do it?” they shrug their shoulders and say, “Oh, I don’t know.  I don’t really do anything.”  <\/span>

Yeah right.<\/span>

I can tell you what it looks like when I don’t do anything.  Those people must have miracle gro breath.  I don’t.<\/span>

Here are my two secrets.<\/span>

1. Good soil.  Compost.  Compost.  Compost.  <\/span>

2.  Be out there.  A lot.  I went to the garden a lot more often this year and discovered I spent way more time weeding, snipping, watering, fertilizing, pruning, spraying, and just coddling because of it.  When you go out often, you see what needs to be done before the problems take over.  Well sometimes.  <\/span>

Oh, and here’s the other secret.  <\/span>

3. Mulch.  We put the grass clippings from the yard around the tomatoes and potatoes this Spring.  I didn’t have too much faith in it because I thought we should have put newspaper down first.  But let me tell you, it was awesome.  If only we’d have done the entire garden.  Because the rest of it I weeded and weeded and weeded.  Good soil grows great plants but it also grows weeds like babies grow fingernails and ear wax.<\/span>

I thought it was fun to see the progression and I am positively amazed at how much produce a teeny tiny garden can grow.  People smile when they see my garden because it is so little!  This year it was a lot larger because David picked up free landscaping block (from the same place we picked up brick) and made two raised beds.  <\/span>

Because it’s tiny, I plant everything close together.  We don’t have a tiller anyway so whatever space is open, I have to hoe.  Why have space?  Beats me.  We planted early stuff and as soon as the peas were out, replaced them with sweet potatoes.  I just pulled the green beans out yesterday (all except for one little row) and I am honestly sighing with enormous relief to see space instead of more work.  Truly I am still not a vegetable gardener at heart!  <\/span>

The garden in May:<\/span>

<\/a>

<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>
<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>

Garden in June:<\/span>
<\/a>

<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>
<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>
<\/a><\/a> <\/span> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>
<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>
<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>  <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a>


Garden in July:<\/span>
I’d prefer <\/span>Gloria<\/a> not see this picture since she always thinks of me as a worker and I’d just as soon she keep that lovely disillusion.  <\/span>
<\/a>

<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span> <\/a><\/a> <\/span><\/a>
<\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/a> <\/span> <\/a><\/a>
<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/span>
<\/a>
(as of this morning with most of the plants GONE! yippee kay yeah!)<\/p>\n

So you saw how tiny that garden is?  <\/span>

Would you believe that I have canned:<\/span>

31 pints of pickles (eight or so were from cucumbers from a friend’s garden)<\/span>
9 pints of pickled red beets (We don’t even really like them but David loVes red beet eggs.  I’ve never done them before and decided to try them only to discover I sort of like them after all so we’re both happy.)<\/span>

and frozen:<\/span>

79 1\/2 pints of green beans<\/span>
four quart size ziplock bags crammed full of green pepper wedges on top of all the peppers that went into 12 pints of zucchini relish (the zucchini was from a friend because the squash bug laughed at my organic spray)<\/span>
<\/span>
Lying in the basement and being devoured rapidly:<\/span>
Almost fifteen gallons of potatoes.<\/span>

We are absolutely loving all the fresh cherry tomatoes and cucumbers with fresh mozarella and basil or feta and black olives.  And if you have never tried Ryvietas you have missed out on the best part of summer food.  Layer a ryvieta or wasa cracker with mayo, cheese (I like cojack, David loves feta), basil, green peppers, red onion, avocado, tomato or any combination of vegetables you like.  love.  love.  love.<\/p>\n

 I walk to the garden and the freezer and just feel rich.  The sweet potatoes are growing and growing.   And just knowing that every single freezer box I own is full and in the freezer (thanks to nearly 70 pints of strawberries and all the beans) makes me feel virtuous.<\/span>

The biggest sore spot in the garden (other than the first zucchini plant that died and the one cucumber that followed suit thanks to those bugs) is the tomatoes.  They have horrible blight.  I bring the orange ones in every day and let them ripen as much as they will then scald them and pop them in the freezer for a canning day later.  They are disgusting.  We’re getting a few that are nice enough to eat, but my tomato thumb is truly impaired.  <\/span>

I am still not convinced that it is cheaper to garden.  At least not if you buy compost.  And spray.  And fertilizer.  But I am convinced that the produce tastes better.  My true garden fetish began twitching back in Ireland when I heard Darina Allen speak in 2005.  That woman has no idea how she changed my life in that hour long session in a crowded tent surrounded by mud.  And while our chickens do not wander through the garden at will or jump up on my kitchen table, we are at least raising chickens.  It was my first introduction to Slow Food International.  I savor flavors and think of her.<\/span>

Liam’s issues and a stomach turning look at Food, Inc set the wheels in high gear.  I don’t know if I’ll always do it.  But for now, I am happily pretending to be a gardener.  And not so secretly <\/span>sighing with relief<\/span> yelling with pleasure when every plant gets yanked out and loaded in the wheelbarrow.<\/span>

I don’t read gardening blogs or books.  Proof that my interest does not lie there.  But I do love <\/span>this blog<\/a> and have learned so, SO much about gardening from her expertise.  Every time I wonder over I get stuck reading another and another.  <\/span>

I want to hear about your garden if you have one.  <\/span>
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