More gardening

Okay, so I've  totally overdone it on my garden...  I've been working on it every day I can since the end of February when it started to warm up.  It is looking beautiful.  I'll draw you all a mental picture.  Visualize my back yard.  Our lot is 1 1/3 acres.  The back 1/4 is covered in trees, the first 1/4 is front yard and house, behind the house 1/4 is about 6 pecan trees, a magnolia, and some other trees.  The next 1/4 is my garden space.

I love my garden space!  In this space, I have three east to west raised lasagna beds, a compost bin, two rows of fruit trees/bushes and a raised strawberry bed. A dear friend in my autism parent support group taught me lots about lasagna gardening... Lasagna gardening involves starting with a layer of newspaper or cardboard as your base layer and then layer upon layer of soil and other compostable materials. Every layer brings so much organic goodness and my garden has the biggest pill bugs and worms! They just love it. Let me describe my set up.  

I'll start with the lasagna beds.  The on farthest to the right if you are standing with your back to the house is about 20 feet long.  On the front end, I have a salvaged grape arbor with a red and a green seedless grape on it.  Behind the grapes I have planted 10 asparagus roots that have not come up yet, but the roots looked good when I dug into them yesterday..  Behind the asparagus, I have carrots, then, parsnips, spinach, cilantro, and wavy parsley.  I've also planted three hills of cucumbers and a row of bush beans in this bed.  On the right of the bed, I just discovered the concord grape I planted after I first moved into this house and then mowed over...  It somehow survived and I need to buy another grape arbor for it.  

The next bed, also about 20 feet, contains a row of sugar snap peas in the middle, 16 baby tomato plants encircling the peas, and both iceberg and romaine lettuce encircling the entire bed on the outside (15 lettuce plants have survived out of about 25 that I planted).

The next row is my big row, it is about 80 feet long and 4 ft - 6 ft wide.  Starting at the front of the bed, I have about 5 volunteer pumpkin plants, three rows of four varieties of potato (red, white, Yukon gold, and purple).  Outside the potatoes, I've planted a row of watermelon.  Next comes three short rows of bush beans I planted three weeks ago.  Next to the beans is some volunteer spaghetti squash (I think).  Behind the beans, I have two sections of onions.  One is yellow the other red.  After the onions are 18 broccoli plants, then 9 cabbage, then, 4 hills of zucchini, then 9 brussels sprouts, and 18 cauliflower. Outside of the cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, I've put 5 more hills of zucchini.    In between  each section of crops, I  have planted 2 tomato plants except near the potatoes for a total of 31 tomato plants in 7 separate varieties in all in the entire garden. (those varieties are purple cherokee, brandywine, jubilee, curry, super beefsteak, superboy, and mortgage maker.  Two pinks, three reds, a yellow and a purple heirloom).

Next comes my fruit - an east to west row containing about 6-8 feet apart each - 3 thornless blackberries, a red raspberry, two blue berries, a dwarf cherry and a pitiful little stick of a fig tree.  The next row has a raised bed of strawberry plants which I plan to expand this fall - big time- then two more blue berry plants (I want another blue berry or 10 as well) and a semi-dwarf cherry tree.  

If all of these plants do well, I will have produce coming out of my ears this summer! I will hopefully have enough to do lots of freezing, canning, and preserving as well as plenty of fresh veggies to snack on and use in recipes. And some to give away and maybe even sell! I already have a good bit of spinach that is very near harvesting and can't wait to start munching. The best thing about the way I garden how little weeding you have to do. I mow around the outsides of the beds and pull up the few weeds that invade. But the invaders are a lot less than when I was tilling the yard for traditional garden space. I can't wait to see what grows well!

Gardening with kids

Gardening with kids can be both infuriating and fun. I love spending time with my kids, but gardening is always something I've done just for me. Sure, it produces some food for the entire family, but my love for being in the dirt, working with soil, pulling weeds, watching things grow... It is just *mine*! But I have always wanted to foster that love in my kids. I want them to enjoy watching things grow too. So they have helped a little in the garden this year. Evie has helped me plant pole beans. Isaac planted watermelon yesterday. Asher loves to help water the garden. And Oz mostly just observes, though he has tried to help weed by pulling out stuff he shouldn't! And they all love transferring worms to my composting bin.

I love having them out there with me to help sometimes - so I can teach them how to love the process of watching things grow and they are so much more likely to eat veggies from my garden than from the grocery store. All of that is is so wonderful, but sometimes, I just want the quiet. I want to keep the experience all to myself. I want to go outside without having to chase Oz or instruct on weed vs. plant. I just want to be out there without disturbance or distraction, because it is *mine*.

Then I feel guilty about this selfishness - about my need - no... that's not right. My *desire* to have something that I don't have to share with anyone else. My *desire* to commune with nature on an almost worshipful level - this centers my mind and heart so I can do the job of educating my children and taking care of the household. Hmm... So is it desire or need? I'm not sure. Pictures of my gardening adventures to follow soon, I hope.