June 2, 2008
Well, It has been quite awhile since I have posted anything here and while my time is stretched at the moment I felt
the need to get back into the habit of recording what we are doing in the garden.
An Alabama June can only be described in one word - HOT. And living up to its potential, we are now basking in
the heat and humidity. This morning, Sarah and I were out in the garden harvesting herbs to dry. Oregano, Lemon Balm,
Catnip, Lemon Verbena are all now hung up and drying. Well, let me correct that - the Lemon Balm is in a dehydrator
drying. It turns black really quickly and so we have to dehydrate it as soon as possible after picking in order to have
a good product when it is done. Once they are dry, all of the herbs are stripped from the stems and put in dark glass
jars and labeled for storage. It is my hope, to offer some of these dried herbs for sale by the end of the summer.
Our biggest effort this week will be getting the poles in place for the pole beans. We have been so busy we have
not done this yet and the plants are already beginning to send out runners, so this must be done immediately. I have
planted Kentucky Wonder and Alabama #1 poles beans. We also have Butterpeas, Jacob Cattle Beans, Hutterite Soup
Beans, Roma Beans in the garden, but all of these are the bush variety. As you can see we are bean rich, but when you
think about what to plant in your garden, you really need to focus on the plants that will sustain life. We have lots
of peppers, but they won't necessarily fill us up and give us enough protein to survive if they economy is worse and we only
have what we can produce in the garden to survive on.
Speaking of peppers we do have quite a variety this year. The ancho peppers are already producing. We also
have Jalapeno, Habenero, Bullnose, California Wonder, Pimento, Emerald Giant peppers and a couple of other varieties
that I can't remember at the moment. Each variety has been separated by about 100 feet from the others so that we can
hopefully keep the seed pure for next year. We shall see.
My big endeavor this year is in the tomatoes. We have 152 plants in the garden so far and I have already begun
to root some suckers for planting out in about a month. My main crop is Rutgers and Homestead for canning.
We also have Romas, Bonnie Best, Cherokee Purple, Brandwine, Thessalonika, Cour Di Bue (Oxheart), Amish Paste, Juliette Grape and
Pantano Romanesco. I do love the heirlooms but I wanted to make sure that I had a good variety in case a virus
hits one or the other. One of the joys of this year's tomatoes is that I planted them all from seed and only had to
purchase the three Juliette Grape from a local nursery. I have already propagated about 7 of those from suckers so I
have plenty. It is my desire to be able to produce enough tomato products to supply our entire family for at least a
year. That includes: Salsa, Spaghetti Sauce, Ketchup, Tomato Juice, Whole Tomato, Tomato Paste and Tomato Sauce, etc. I
also hope to have enough left over to sell fresh tomatoes to local folks.
One of our fun projects in the garden this year is the TeePee. You may have seen these before, but this is a teepee
made from bamboo poles and we have Scarlett Runner Beans growing up the poles. It is very large with about an 8 foot
diameter inside the teepee. It is about 9 feet tall. Hopefully by August it will be covered fully and the grandbabies
can have a perfect play place when they come. I have posted a picture of it on the
Farm Construction page. I will post further pictures as the beans grow so that you can see its progress.
We have a multitude of melons and pumpkins growing as well. Our new varieties of melon this year are Burrell Jumbo
Melon and Thayer Melon. I am excited about these. The Burrell melon is from a seedhouse actually called the Burrell
Seed Company but we purchased the seed from Baker Creek Seeds. It is kinda fun to have a plant with our name on it.
Our asparagus has been excellent this year. We are now letting it go to the fern stage in preparation for next
spring. It has really produced beautifully and I look forward to many, many years of good harvests. Asparagus
is a perennial. The June-bearing strawberries are playing out now, but the ever-bearing are still putting on.
Paul got the wood to make the raised beds for them this past weekend, so this will be done in the next week or so. When
we moved in we just wanted to get them in the ground as soon as possible, but now they need a permanent home. The June
Bearing haven't begun to send out the runners yet for the daughter plants but the ever-bearing have. That is how they
increase and will give us plenty of new plants for the beds.
Other crops we have planted are:
- Cowhorn Okra - this one gets really long pods that remain tender
- Yukon Gold potatoes - blooming now and so they are making 'taters
- Kennebec potatoes - not doing as well as the Yukon so we will see
- Cinderella Pumpkins
- Sugar Pie Pumpkins
- Peanuts - Doing very well - they will grow all summer and then send our their creeping stems which will go down into the
soil and begin making peanuts. This is going to be a fun crop.
- Delikatesse Cucumbers - already harvesting on this one
- Boston Pickling - doing well
- Black Beauty Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck - Squash Bugs are doing well! ;-( But we are on the attack. Blooms
are abounding and baby squash is happening!!
- Sunflowers - I went wild this year and planted 6 rows of sunflowers. One is an ornamental, but the other 5 rows
are the Mammoths. Everyone in our family loves sunflower seeds so this should supply us all. And of course, I
love the birds so I wanted plenty to share. There are few things as lovely in the garden as sunflowers smiling everywhere.
We had quite a few volunteers pop up from last years crop and eventhough they are in bizarre places I have let them grow.
I can't bear to cut down a volunteer plant.
- Lots of Onions and Garlic
Okay, I know there is more to share but I must finish this up! Pray for me as I pray for you - that our gardens would
produce and bring Glory to the Father!
