Category: Gardening Secrets
Lessons from the garden
Earlier this week, I came up with the bright idea of adding a design element of a trellis to a garden bed that is already lushly growing a sweet border crop of radishes, little red ones and daikon, a center section of mixed Asian greens, edging of onions, and little side planting of strawberries, oh yes, and an under planting of cilantro. My idea was to move an awkward piece of double hung piece of steel 4×4 fencing from one end of our garden to another. It weighs about 50 lbs. , judging by Pa’s and my estimate.` My thought was, well, if I move the fence over there, I will get it off of the lilies it is crushing, and also that bed might need a trellis for some plant , who knows? Pole beans maybe? Let me tell you, moving that fence over a fully planted garden, that I share with my neighbor, was challenging. Plus, my 11 month old puppy Beau James was in an off leash “stay back” command on the deck.
But “go ahead” I said to myself. Just the other day, I had used Pa’s industrial strength bolt cutters to bend approximately 75 little end pieces of that same kind of 4×4 fencing to make a nice edge string of bent iron loops to fit a bamboo pole into. ( see featured photo above ) The poky ends are scary and I wanted to make it safe for people to walk through. I also had hung a large sculptural piece of ironwork on our lovely steel arbor -made with remnants of fencing we brought home when Entiat used to have a metal recycling day, some iron mesh found at The Pines, angle iron and rebar. Both of those efforts were substantial, but gardening and dog rearing have made me stronger and more confident.
I managed to maneuver the fencing to the bed without destroying hardly a plant, but once to the destination, I needed to open the base of the two-sided trellis and stabilize is, which turned out to be impossible. I turned it around , leaned it over, and slowly worked all the angles using all the leverage tricks I knew. Nothing worked. I was stuck with a heavy weight leaning against me, and a delicate patch of young plants and vulnerable irrigation pipes beneath me.
Just as I was standing there stuck in one place, the meter reader guy drove up in our driveway. Naturally, Beau began his barking and I was sure that I would have to lay the fencing down and smash something to prevent an encounter between him and the guy. But miraculously, he stayed behind the “stay back line” (which is just an imaginary line drawn with a sweep of my hand as I say “stay back” ) ! I thought about asking the guy for a hand, but knew if he approached, Beau would lose it, and then I would have more to contend with than being stuck. So I just said “hi!”, and praised Beau for his self control.
Still stuck, I gave up, and realized my only option was to pick the fence up and move it out of the garden totally and decide later if and where to place it, next time with help from Pa, which I did.
This failed attempt brought to mind several maxims :
- Be very careful where you step and what you step on
- Trust your strength and stretch your limits, but take your time.
- When you lose control over a situation, stay calm, and hopefully others will too.
- Giving up on an idea is sometimes a good idea.
I came in for lunch and to read. This NYTimes article captured my attention, and perfectly expressed my sense of wonder and worry about out beautiful earth. It is somewhat unrelated to my experience, but then again, I feel that we need to listen carefully and intently to the wisdom of other living creatures and rely less and less on our human perspective.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/opinion/united-nations-extinction.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Making Do and Hanging On
The end of February, 2009 and I can almost smell the garden when I go out the door. The weather hasn’t stabilized yet, and we could even get snow again tonight, but little greens are growing both in the homemade greenhouse and in the recently constructed coldframe. I haven’t gone outside yet this morning to check on the baby greens, but I feel that a little chill won’t hurt them as long as they are under the protection of their covers. There is something corollary about the hardening off of plants, and the hardships of life that gives strength to the individual.
I have been reading the book “”Making Do and Hanging On,” with the subtitle “Growing Up in the Apple Country Through the Great Depression”, by Bruce Foxworthy. I feel honored to learn about the challenges that the generation that grew up during the 30’s has to share with us. The history of Entiat is very young, and Mr. Foxworthy’s family epitomized the kind of people that lived by principles of hard work and honesty that living in a beautiful but harsh environment required. I can say that I have met no more friendly and giving people than those from that generation, and from this valley. As we and our children’s generation are entering our own hard times ahead, I hope that we can thrive and come out even stronger than before. In a way, (as I was telling Ruthie last night) I am kind of looking forward to a Depression.
You are all invited to attend a program at the Entiat Public Library (or the Entiat Grange if need be) featuring Bruce Foxworthy on Tuesday, April 14th at 7:00 PM. He stopped by the library the other day to donate a book to the branch and we arranged a date for him to speak. The next week, Tuesday, April 21st at 7:00 PM we are hosting Carl Allen who performs Woody Guthrie songs of the Depression era, as well as the song Roll On, Columbia – Washington’s State Song.
Picking Plums
Don’t you love the way he gracefully picks the plums from the tree? The trick to growing a good Italian Plum tree is so simple. Plant one or find one where it happens to be, and when the season arrives, pick the fruit. The birds will eat a few, but happily, bugs don’t seem to like them very much. We have found that the fruit is most easily preserved by drying it. A simple commercial dryer works great. This year we are experimenting with putting sliced fruit in the greenhouse on a piece of screening. On a hot day, the temperature in the greenhouse gets up above 120 degrees. The texture of the finished dried fruit is nicer than in the electric dryer. Later in the year I will use the fruit in fruitcakes and breads, or just as a snack with nuts. I’m interested in more ways to use it. Sometimes I wish I had a cook living with us so I could just grow the garden and fruit trees, harvest and preserve the produce and someone else would make delicious meals or treats with it. Anyone interested??
Pops said he knows just what it feels like to be pregnant when he wears the pickin basket. I appreciate that he tries to imagine what it must feel like.
How to plant peas
I am behind in my gardening, but I just planted my snow peas, and am going to plant snap peas tonight, or tomorrow. In pea planting, there is so much chance for success, that you can hardly go wrong. Early in the spring find a spot that will get lots of sunshine. You will either want to plant regular peas which have to be shelled, or you will choose edible pod peas which are either snow or snap. I choose the edible peas, as I don’t have time usually to shell peas. Soak your peas for an hour at least, and up to a day in advance. Drain the water, and then coat the peas with inoculant. It helps the peas to grow vigorously and to capture the nitrogen from the soil. I usually buy legume inoculant from a garden store, or from wherever I have ordered my seeds from. Lately I have been buying from Johnny’s Seeds. Plant the coated seeds about 2 – 3 inches apart, beneath some sort of support. You can use fencing, or strings or anything the vines will be able to grow up. The thing I like about peas is that they are full of good green veggie antioxidants, and are a good source of protein, and they can be raw or cooked. There are so many good ways to cook them. Growing them also actually enriches your soil, and brings up more nitrogen, so it is good to move them to a new location from year to year. Once they start to bear, pick consistently to keep the peas coming. Snowpeas should be let to grow a little fatter to let the peas get plump inside. Snappeas should be picked as soon as they are about two inches long – their peas inside aren’t supposed to get big. One year, I let the snowpeas get too big and the shells were tough, but we still ate them – after a fun little shucking session with Gpa and Uncle Johnny. Another hint – put relatives to work – they love it!
Everything you want to learn from Mom!!
Hi! This is Ruthie posting. I am starting a blog for Mom, because she is amazing, talented and very skilled. I’ve learned so much from her, but there are still so many things I still would like to learn more about with and from her. Here are a few: How to make bread, how to grow vegetables and herbs, how to can veggies and fruit, how to stay as healthy as she is, how to make a welcoming home, how to train a baby…. there is so much!!! Please post what you would like to learn from Mom, or what you have already learned!!!
Secrets from Granny 