The Garden Book

  

Thomas Jefferson had a garden book.  And now, so do the Kempers.  I will not say that our garden book will ever be as detailed or as faithfully kept as Jefferson's, but I hope it will be beneficial to us.  I've read in many gardening blogs and how-to's that a garden journal of some sort will be an effective help to improving the garden year by year.  That's precisely what I'm hoping for.  At least, if I can be good about keeping it updated.  Since I don't work in the garden a great deal, and I never make it outside without one or two kids in tow, sometimes it's hard for me to keep track of what is producing. Already, we have snap peas getting ready to ripen, and I hadn't even known the peas were producing yet.  And so I haven't gotten it down.  I guess it's one more thing to be vigilant about.


Some of the things I'm trying to keep track of:

• what and when we have planted
• what is producing (and preferably when)
• any changes or improvements to the garden plot
• maybe applications of compost (yet to have happened, though)

Things I may need to think about adding so I remember from year to year:

• weather damage (for instance, it hailed pretty bad just before we planted.  If we'd had plants in the ground, I would want to note that.  I know it has affected some cherry crops around the area)
• precipitation totals.  This might be helpful so we can remember just how wet or dry, but I don't know that I want to keep a tally of rainfall inches all the time.  This isn't an almanac, right?

Anyone else out there keep a garden journal?  Do you have anything you would suggest adding?

How does your garden grow?

These pictures are already a few weeks old...

The Garden Game Plan

Nick got the garden mostly planted a little over a week ago, finishing up this past weekend with a few extra tomato plants and some garlic sets.  It's been fun watching him check the garden every day.  He points out what is sprouting and how things are growing, an it helps me to learn along with him.

Our plan is simple: he will garden, and I will process the produce.  While I've been leaning about canning methods and freezing techniques, Nick has been studying up on vegetable varieties, sun exposure, and compost.  Our goal is to grow the vegetables we would consume. So, though I don't use peppers or onions in my cooking generally, as Nick hates them, we are in fact growing some to use in the salsas, pasta sauces, and ketchups I hope to make with our tomatoes.

Eliza helping to sort the seed packets.


Here's the list of what we hope will grow for us:

• broccoli
• cauliflower
• beans
• peas, both snap peas and shelling peas
• carrots, in a variety of colors
• onions
• garlic
• spinach
• a variety of lettuces
• pumpkin
• summer squash
• cucumbers
• tomatoes
• sweet potatoes
• potatoes
• and a variety of herbs such as dill, basil, parsley, cilantro, thyme, rosemary....

  I'm keeping a garden journal on how we do from year to year, but I'll tell you more about that later.  We'll keep you posted on how everything grows!

The works progresses

Nick spent the majority of his weekend working out in the garden.  I really should have taken some "before" pictures so that you could see how far he's come on working on that particular piece of real estate.

The finished beds were on my right as I sat in the yard, watching Nick and Eliza work this weekend.  (Well, Nick worked, and Eliza "helped".  Simon and I chilled out in a lawn chair.)   Finished, as in built, I should say.  We haven't planted anything yet.

The bed frames and unbroken ground was to my left.  You can see our neighbors' backyard beyond the chainlink fence and his mini-greenhouse. Hope he doesn't mind...

And here are Nick and Eliza working in the middle.  Nick first broke up the ground, then picked all the weeds growing out of the dirt.  The he built up the beds within the frames and created little walkways between the beds, as you saw in the first picture.

And all of this after all the work he did to dig up unwanted bushes, chop down the lilac (which we would have moved if it would have survived, we'll just have to plant another one somewhere else) dug out stumps, replanted bulbs elsewhere...  It's been a lot of work and we haven't even planted yet!  But, this picture above is one reason why we want a garden: besides the fresh produce and providing it for our own family, we want to teach our kids to work in the garden, to learn a good work ethic and to appreciate the fruit of their own labors over a season.  We are really hoping and praying for success over the years in this respect.

In the garden!

Nick and I are attempting our first garden this year.  The house we live in has a decent-sized backyard for being in town and there's already a little garden plot in it.  The past years the neighbor has been using the garden space, mostly to insure that weeds don't creep into his own from our yard.  This year, he may need to take different precautions.  Nick and I fully intend to plant some veggies there, but there are no promises to whether we will prove to be conscientious about weeds or that sort of thing.  We're newbies.  We're learning.

I'm excited about it.  Scratch that.  I'm excited about the harvest.  As much as I love The Secret Garden, and could read it every year, truly, I don't fancy myself to be much of a gardener.  I don't mind plants, but I kill them far too easily.  And I hate bugs.  I have a horror of bugs.  My contribution to bug control may not go beyond the suggest we plant marigolds in the garden, as I hear they are a natural bug repellent.  For pete's sake, if that's true, let's plant them throughout the house!  I hate bugs.  So, I honestly can't see myself spending a lot of time tending our dear, little plants on my hands and knees with my hands deep in the soil.  I will gladly keep the garden journal so we can improve on our gardening experience from year to year (because we're pretty serious about wanting to grow vegetables and doing some canning and preserving); I will gladly help harvest.  I will gladly go out and water on a hot, dry day.  But weeding and debugging may be out of my league.

My concern is that we not be overwhelmed this first year.  We've made a list of veggies we'd like to have.  It's a long list.  This doesn't include the strawberries and blueberry and blackberry bushes I'd like to get (though I may suggest those go on the other side of the yard when we get it straightened out).  I have things I want to make: gratins, salsas, tomato sauces (though the sauce I make right now is so easy...), etc.  I want to get vegetable cook books and learn more about preparing them.  Nick and I have discussed the benefits of being vegetarians, but we don't really think we could do it.  However, if I was more proficient at preparing vegetables, aided by an abundant harvest that must be eaten, we might be able to cut our meat and carb consumption down enough to be respectable.  I love that idea.

So a-gardening we go!  I intend to update regularly on the garden.  I want this to work.  I know I've likely romanticized having one a bit, but I've been jealous of a friend's canning and pickling stints and the produce from her plot.  Maybe it will take time, but hopefully we can turn over a new leaf!