Saturday in the Garden

The day was partially spent in upgrading the irrigation lines for the bed I prepared last week. I use drip irrigation lines with emitters that I can clean when they clog up. They all eventually clog with the fine clay that escapes the filters. It is a wet job to go down the line pulling apart the emitters, cleaning them and putting them back together.

The well should be running clearer by now (5 years after drilling) but I strongly suspect the drillers didn’t case the well all the way to the bottom. So, I have a big filter at the wellhead and filters on the headers for each bed. Prior to each watering, the filters must be flushed. In spite of such irritations, I am very thankful for a reliable water supply.

I made furrows in the aforementioned bed and dribbled out the seeds: Swiss chard, mustard, lettuce, and carrots. I think I am late in doing this but perhaps hard freezes will be late and few.

I notice I have some eggplant ready to be harvested…should be good for supper Sunday evening.

Tomatoes: I commented toward the beginning of summer about the tomatoes I grew from transplants obtained from the nursery and how they would be better than store-bought. That did come true, but they were definitely not the heirlooms I usually grow. The heirlooms are not as fruitful but their fruit is far superior. The Celebrities and Homesteads were fruitful and delicious…but you have to get past the skin which is tough and will definitely add to your intake of fiber. I have made a decision to stick with my tender-skinned, delicious heirlooms.

We ate the peas mentioned in the last blog.  Brenda made corn pone-style cornbread to go with it.  The cornbread was sure good…the peas were a little bit less than so-so.

Until next blog…eat your veggies…Nonnie and Pop said so.

End of Summer

September is a tough time of year for gardens around here. Everything planted in the Spring is winding down. The weeds are rank because of a record amount of rainfall. Organic practices make everything grow well…including the weeds. We just couldn’t keep up with it. Talk about biodiversity!

I pulled out the southern peas (Zipper Creme) today and stripped them of their final attempts to make more peas. It was time…they were on their last legs. Still haven’t shelled them…that task remains. They are the best I’ve ever tasted. We intend to grow them every year.

I need the pea bed for the anticipated arrival of the fall vegetable seedlings I’ve ordered. Kale, Collards, Broccoli, etc. I usually start my own…but this year, with no one to work the beds but me, there just wasn’t time. I will add a bit of cottonseed meal and Texas Greensand and till it into the top couple of inches of soil.

It’s a bit late, but I am going to try to get a new stand of Swiss Chard (Silverbeet) going along with carrots and mustard greens. I have also planted some Fava Beans…we’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime…eat your veggies, Nonnie and Pop say so.

In the Charamon Garden

I’m a guy who likes to garden…always have…vegetables mostly. I find deep satisfaction in growing our own grub. Our home in Abilene is blessed with space for a monstrous vegetable garden. It is the place where several things come to pass:

• Restoration of sanity (badly needed lately)
• Growing organic produce for my family and friends
• Inhaling fresh air and soaking up sunshine (vitamin D, you know).
• Getting a lot of good exercise (bending, stooping, lifting, digging, hoeing, etc).

On Brenda’s diet, we need plenty of organic vegetables and the garden does a good job of keeping us supplied.

In the autumn (actually, starting in August) we grow garlic, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, cabbage and lettuce. These are harvested most of winter and into spring. In the unused beds we grow a cover crop, usually legumes like hairy vetch and Austrian winter peas. And…we grow weeds; lots of ‘em…huge hulking wild thangs this year because of frequent rain.

In the summer we grow peaches, plums, figs, tomatoes (of course), green beans, southern peas, squash, okra, eggplant, more lettuce, peppers, asparagus, and more chard.

All this is watered from a well and filtered and put through a drip irrigation system which, because of the blessed rain, I have only used once this season (a little more about that next blog).

Monday was a fine, cool and overcast day…the perfect day to get out in the vegetable garden and get some things done. It is my custom, when in Abilene at our home, “Charamon,” to drink my first tankard of morning coffee in a space we fondly call, “The Retreat.” It’s really just a concrete slab left over from some departed outbuilding with a couple of chairs and a bench. Two giant mesquite trees and a few small pecan trees provide shade and the feeling of a semi-private nook.

“The Retreat” has its good and bad points. It is a nice cozy place to just sit and think or pray. It is a good place to have a conversation. It is ideally situated to listen to the mockingbirds, robins and our resident woodpecker. But, it also overlooks the garden and that means one can see all the work that needs to be done. So, one has to carry the right attitude into the retreat…one must banish all consideration of the weeding, mulching, digging, hoeing, planting, harvesting and watering screaming for attention.

“I’ll attend to that later,” I tell myself, “after coffee and a bit of breakfast.” But, very often, when the coffee’s gone, I swing into action. I was almost through weeding one side of the eggplant bed when hunger struck. I tried to ignore it. It persisted. Finally I succumbed to two eggs and a couple of links of breakfast sausage. Stomach satisfied I fell to the tasks at hand.

I finished the weeding and began working through plastic bags of grass clippings and leaves left by a neighbor down the block. Some of them (shamefully) have been there since late last summer and were filled with what can best be described as “gunk.” That’s what happens when you leave them to decompose anaerobically. The stuff smells like cow patties without benefit of cows…whew! But onto the compost pile it goes. The stench mercifully dissipates in a couple of days. The rest went onto the tomato and eggplant bed as mulch to break down and be absorbed by the grateful soil. As I picked up the bags, many lovely delicacies were exposed for the hungry mockingbirds.

Not being blessed with time to start my own seeds (I was in Australia when that needed to be done) I opted for nursery-grown plants. I bought nine tomato plants: five “Celebrities” and four “Homesteads.” I guess they won’t taste as good as the heirloom variety that I usually grow, but they will definitely taste better than the little red rubber balls they flog in the produce section. I also bought bedding plants of peppers (jalapeno and bell), eggplant, squash and okra. The okra is doing terrible. Only four out of seven have survived (I have a couple of extras). Everything else is beginning to thrive.

Until next blog…eat your veggies…Nonnie and Pop said so.