Thursday, June 12, 2014

The Garden

The vegetable garden is IN!!

I was going to say the the garden is done, but when you have a garden, vegetable, flower or ornamental, it's never done.  It's just the beginning.

But we finally had the cracking open of the thick layer of ice which covered everything this past winter, the opportunity to till the garden and infuse it with compost, chicken manure and leaves, and sequential  planting of different crops that will sustain us over the next couple of seasons.

I'm trying to see if I can grow, harvest, preserve enough vegetables for our family for the year.  I came fairly close to being self sustaining last year.

This year we have eaten asparagus almost every night for a month now.

The peas, although not sown early enough, have oozed out of the ground....up,up up they push with their green scrubby heads and their tangle of skinny arms reaching upward trying to grasp the netting they will attach themselves to and send out the sweetest green vegetable we eat.

We have long summer days here in the North Country.  Actually great for growing crops if we just can get them in the ground reasonably early in the spring.  The long light hours of our summers result in spectacular flower gardens too,  filled with lilacs, iris, hostas, peonies, columbine, evening primrose, lupine, apple and crabapple trees.

So now I wait, and nurture the beans, potatoes, beets, summer squash, winter squash, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers, cucumbers and herbs to season everything.

I think having a vegetable garden creates an excitement about food.  Suddenly the whole year is being planned out; what we need for each season, how much, and how to store and preserve it, and the search for new recipes and possibilities for each season.  We look forward to eating something "in season", summer dinner is vegetarian many times,  but oh so yummy, fresh veggies picked just before eating.  Pickles all year long with our sandwiches, red, white, purple potatoes to give us energy and comfort in the fall and winter, squash made into soups or casseroles, carrots for the stew, and those dark purple beets that are so sweet and melt in your mouth with butter and salt!

It's a lot of work, but the rewards are terrific.  In the garden, we will always be the nurturer.  Gardens like children don't grow themselves.  Our maternal instincts are exercised each day as we care for our crops.

Hans Christian Anderson said..."just living is not enough...one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."  I'm adding "a few vegetables are helpful too!"