Garden Maintenance

A gardeners work is never done. The temperature are slowly climbing into the 80's this week and my days begin before daylight. I post every morning at 4:00 AM.  For a week or so here we didn't think it would ever quit raining. It rained every day. And the weeds and grass loved it. I showed you this picture of my garden and that was after O Wis One had run the hand cultivator through it.  

It took me 2 days to get all the weeds out of that rascal and start laying straw and grass down. Notice that whole row of mustard greens to the right will be ready soon. The last row of mustard greens are waiting on the table already canned in jars to be labeled and put into the pantry.

I had to take a break from mulching and pick and can mustard greens and finish planting warm weather crops in the other garden before the next rain moved in. We planted 35 tomato plants, 3 more rows of corn, a row of okra, 3 rows of red beans, a row of sweet potatoes, a half row of crookneck squash, and half a row of butternut squash and 2 rows of crowder field peas.


Still left to plant cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe, dill and peppers. 

This mound of dried grass is waiting patiently to be put down around the tomato plants before the cages can be staked down. Mulch is such an important step in growing tomatoes in my opinion and helps so much to not only keep down weeds and control moisture but to help prevent fungal diseases from soil splashing back on the leaves and spreading soil borne pathogens. 

Once the Mustard Greens were picked the remaining stalks left behind were chopped with my shovel and worked back into the soil along with a 5 gallon bucket of rabbit poop. It was all watered in good and will be allowed to sit for a couple days then I have a tray of nice broccoli plants to be planted back here. 

Isn't that soil beautiful all black and crumbly and that rabbit poop and green matter will just help to keep it that way. This is the most important step in gardening just keeping that soil alive and healthy. It seems for everything we take out we are putting twice as much back.  Not just farmers or gardeners but caretakers of the soil. Nurturing it as the valuable asset that it truly is. 

The healthier the soil, the healthier the vegetables that come from it and the healthier the person consuming those vegetables. 

Well I must get up from this computer and get my day started. There are strawberries to pick and Chinese Cabbage. The peas are putting on pods now and blooming up a storm. We cut our first broccoli yesterday and the regular cabbage is starting to head. It is truly high gardening season here on Hickery Holler Farm. The pitchfork is calling my name waiting for grass to be put down. So for today I leave you with the wise words of Masanobu Fukuoka.

The earth is not merely soil, and the blue sky more than just empty space. The earth is the garden of God, and the sky is where He sits. The farmer who, chewing well the grain harvested from the Lord's garden, raises his face to the heaven in gratitude, lives the best and most perfect life possible.

Masanobu Fukuoka

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter