First garden tour of the season

Y’all I could not be more excited about this post! So much dreaming, planning and exhausting hard work has gone into this garden, and it has truly been a wonderful and therapeutic experience.

Every morning, I grab my first cup of coffee and head over to see how things have changed overnight. There is nothing like cool, quiet mornings when the dew is still on the plants, and the mist is still hovering over the garden. It is certainly calming and reassuring in today’s tumultuous environment.

This was a process for sure. I did a lot of reading and researching different methods from Ruth Stout and Charles Dowding, to till and tarp and everything in between. Ultimately, of course, I realized you have to do what works for you, your budget, your soil and your resources, so I stuck pretty close to my Appalachian roots – using what we had and listening to the wise and experienced advice of my parents. I planted only what we eat – food that we like to eat fresh, as well as things that store well- potatoes, candy roasters, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, and those that can or freeze well – green beans, corn, zucchini and cucumbers for pickles.

If you didn’t see the youtube video where Daddy and I are planting potatoes, be sure to check it out so you can see our progress as well as this post on starting the garden. Here is how things looked on June 3.

And here is a drone shot from June 23. It looks so small and one-dimensional from above.

This is a July 4th drone shot, so you can see the progress, although not as much as on the ground☺️

We have not had much rain, but the little bit we’ve had has certainly made a difference. That and a lot of hard work!

I put down cardboard and wood chips in my pumpkin patch, and anywhere else I could to keep weeds down. Daddy and I chipped a lot of brush earlier in the spring, but we didn’t have enough. I asked on facebook if anyone knew where to find some – then a friend and his wife surprised me and showed up with a load. I was so overcome with gratitude, I was in tears.

I’ve been working on getting all the cardboard down and chips on top with help from Daddy and Cristian, my fifteen year old, so we’ve been able to make things look really pretty as well. This will also be great for the soil. I also put newspapers and used brown packing paper around my hills of squashes/pumpkins and used dry grass clippings around everything else, which I am very pleased with.

I started all my seeds in the late winter, including most of my pumpkins/squash. The first two hills here are candy roaster squash that I direct sowed, which we eat in place of pumpkin. It’s a sweet Native American variety, and the seeds have been passed down for generations. Because I’m growing other varieties within a mile, there is a risk of cross-pollination, but my mother and uncle have plenty of seeds saved.

I’m also growing some fun varieties that we could eat if we needed to, but I also love them for decorating in the fall. This “Frankenstein” pumpkin will turn orange and have green “warts.” It’s one of my favorites.

I have jack-o-lantern pumpkins and blue jarrahdale as well, and these have really taken off.

I was really excited to start acorn squash from seed I saved and even more excited to see how they are producing. We love these stuffed with sausage/onions/apples.

These cute orange and white striped pumpkins are also taking off and producing lots. I also have butternut squash in this patch.

I did a lot of research into companion planting and have my tomatoes and peppers next in the garden surrounded by marigolds and wildflowers.

I used woven landscape fabric here because I really wanted to do everything I could to head off the inevitable blight. I started Rutgers, cherry tomatoes, Bradley, and also planted some of the yellow tomatoes mother started. I have snack peppers, bell peppers and a couple jalapeño plants as well. To help with blight/downey mildew/powdery mildew, I tried a ratio of hydrogen peroxide to water without much success and am now using Bonide Copper Fungicide for organic gardening, which I’ve used before pretty successfully.

 

I’m anxiously awaiting the wildflowers to really start blooming. There are also marigolds here as well so I’m helping pollination and fighting bugs/disease as well – if they ever bloom!!

Next are three rows of French green beans we like to eat fresh, and three rows of blue lake beans for canning.

I planted the French beans in two different places, both of which we did not till, and I had serious issues with germination. Where we tilled, everything germinated 100% and is very healthy.

I decided to plant pink tip greasy beans in the holes where the French beans didn’t come up, so I’ll have those to can later and will stake them when they start to climb.

Behind my beans are squash, zucchini, cucumbers, gourds, watermelon and sunflowers.

I also have some broccoli and brussel sprouts I started from seed that I’m still hoping to get something out of.

 I made some little trellises out of branches and am enjoying having things up off the ground.

 

On the other side we have six rows of Red Norland potatoes, and six rows of heirloom Silver Queen corn. In between are two more rows of French green beans with spaghetti squash just coming up, nasturtiums and zinnias in between. I also replanted with pink tip beans as well where the French beans did not germinate well.

The potatoes have finished blooming and will start dying back. We’ll dig them and put them in the root cellar later this summer.

Silver Queen is the only variety of corn we like, and it freezes so well it tastes like fresh. I’ll try to shoot a video of mother’s process preparing and freezing the creamed corn.

We are finally getting tassels so it won’t be long!

I could not have enjoyed this garden more this year. Daddy and I have tilled, hilled potatoes and corn, and had a good time talking about different methods and the old days as we’re working. Mother, who is actually the master gardener/farmer, is mostly sticking to her raised beds because she’ll have foot surgery next week. Although she did come up to supervise, trim and help re-tie some of my tomato plants. She is growing all the cabbages, red and white sweet onions, peppers and tomatoes so there will be more than enough for preserving and putting up for winter. She has already made strawberry jam, blueberry/strawberry jam and will make peach, grape and blackberry soon.

I just could not be more thankful.

Thankful to be on this land my great grandparents lived on.

Thankful to have played in the creek here with my grandmother and caught lightening bugs with my granddaddy.

Thankful to have my parents right here next door to learn from and just enjoy being with.

And thankful, along with my husband, to have raised the fifth generation right here on this land. I truly hope someday one of them will love and cherish this land and our heritage here as much as I do.

Somehow working this garden in the blistering, hot sun has made me even more thankful than I ever imagined. I guess hard work really will make one appreciate the blessings🙏

I’ll have a video garden tour later on with lots of behind the scenes and hopefully some green bean canning with my mother and some healthy farm to table recipes as well. In the meantime, I have to get back to the garden☺️

I’ll be joining:

Inspire Me Tuesday