Garden Workout

Summer is over, except for the last few butternut squash and hidden luffahs lurking in the tangles. The sweet potatoes will get harvested next week. So we have been sporadically pulling the scraggles out and adding manure & straw. He does the adding while I do the bulk of the pulling.
Because this pulling leaves us with huge amounts of plant debris, we are searching for a chipper worthy of this activity. We don't want a wimpy one that can handle up to 1 inch diameter stalks. Neither do we want to take out a loan for a commercial chipper. Lastly we aren't rushing into this purchase until the barn is completed.

THE BARN????? Oh yeah. I forgot to write about this. Two weeks ago the slab was poured and now the walls are up and rafters are being placed. Labor Day is going to put a 3 day hiatus on the progress but that's okay.

Back to the subject. The luffahs are still growing out back but we are going to tackle the rest of the plot, pulling out the remaining tomato stakes and taking down the framework supporting the beans. Then the plow will do all the heavy lifting. After that, we'll sow a cover crop again. John says he's planting hairy vetch. I say he just likes the name.

But the raised beds will definitely get planted with all the usual suspects: sprouts, beets and carrots, peas; I have leeks already being seeded. Lettuce, spinach, cabbage. You get the drift.

It is great fun and a little rattling trying to decide what to plant where and still maintain that rotation scheme in mind. I was mindful of it when we began this farming but in my exuberance, I planted brassicas with legumes. and legumes with solanacae. A no-no only in that make the rotation thing more difficult. So from here on out I will adhere strictly with like things planted together and leaving some of the 11 beds empty to rest.

All this puts me in a bit of a dilemma: Farming on a small scale as we are doing requires thinking ahead. What do we want to grow? When should we plant it? How do we supplement it and when do we harvest? And really, to do this VERY well, it is useful to think way in the future and ask ourselves these same questions for NEXT season.

The dilemma comes in here: Thinking of life in the future is quite the opposite of living in the present. Being in the moment as it were.

Our exchange student from the late 90s has been here on a visit and we watched Kung Fu Panda the other night. I LOVE that film, especially the turtle when he says:

"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and that is why it's called the present"

So, being planted firmly in the present, here is a "being in the moment" moment.


Yeah I cut the hair. It's going to go shorter shortly. (maybe)

And yesterday, the ladies gave us 6 eggs. Still never a full 7 in one day but really. A half dozen eggs in a day is fantastic. What a lovely life.

Someone has a differing opinion