Hi!
It is a bright and warm blustery day on the farm! The kind of day where a person wants to plant some seeds!
In an attempt to get a neater looking garden, my husband Joe is shrinking the size of the plot and enforcing a new rule this year ...everyone can pick their top two favorite garden varieties to grow and be responsible for them. He picked out sweet corn, kohlrabis and popcorn (heh! that is 3!), I chose salad greens and tomatoes, my son Henry chose pumpkins and green beans and the oldest son Sam chose squash and sweet peas.
I must say the biggest garden failure I ever had was the summer after my third child was born. I was still nursing and unable to set the baby down to free my hands for much of anything. Nevertheless, I had fantasies for feeding the family on all the preserved food I could store for the winter, and I had planted my biggest garden ever.
Please write in and tell me what you learn from your garden!
Here is a poem I wrote about the experience:
in amongst the pigweed
in amongst the pigweed
a third child
summer of nursing
unharvested fruits
overripe and wild
my garden teaches me again
about my parenting, my disjointed thoughts,
a desire for self-mastery overwrought by
midwestern children in scratchy, monstrous grass.
losing track of the rows and tools covered in growth
the vastness of the prairie overtakes my hopes for order,
for the bare blackness of control
instead I scavenge with bare hands
and do find good things in the green modesty of my failures
the taste is still sweet when I can feed my family from even this
the smallest watermelon and peppers I have ever seen.
Wholesome Harvest friends came out to enjoy organic food and play horseshoes and badminton.
