This Year's Garden

I don’t know the real cause behind the growth of this year’s garden: could be all the weeding I have done, or the few times I have watered during the few dry periods. Could be the prayers I say over each plant just as I put it into the ground. But whatever the reason, I hope we can duplicate it next year. This has truly been the most phenomenal garden I have ever grown. Now, I am 51 years of age, and I have been gardening since I was 19 years old, so… that is 32 summers of gardening! Holy cow, that should be grounds for some sort of worthy notice!!! Well to tell you the truth, Don has been tilling in some very old pig-pooh from a pile that has been sitting out near the grove for at least 5–10 years, as well as some cow-pooh that has been in the barnyard for about the same length of time. He has kept on adding pooh twice yearly, as well as tilling every few months for the past two years. This has kept the weeds tilled under and the pooh turned over and over. So, by the time we planted the garden seeds this spring the soil was well worked up and wonderfully fine, crumbly, and fertile. That man is a master gardener if there ever was one!

We promised both the kids and one another that we would “CUT DOWN” on the garden size this year. We have worked far too hard on the gardens the last few years and gotten little else done. So, with that in mind, we purchased only 4 teeny-tiny tomato plants in a little tiny 4-pack. Problem is, there were two tomatoes in each little square, and so we ended up with 8 tomato plants. OK. So here I am, standing next to ONE (mind you) tomato plant…

It nearly comes up to my shoulders! Now, multiply this times 8!!!

And that is not the end of it! Here is just one small section of what each and every tomato plant is producing:

I don’t know how many bushels I am looking at for canning, here, but I have a feeling that it is going to be unreal. It is just amazing what a little crap will do. Speaking of crap, Don is giving me crap all the time anyway. Why, just the other day I was checking out the corn, and I found this staring back at me:


Scary!

This is broomcorn:

These are squash and pumpkins:

And the darned summer squash and zucchini have gone crazy…




So much for "CUTTING DOWN!!!" If anybody wants anything from the garden, please, PLEASE feel most free to come on down and partake of the garden’s abundance! And if you do, you may want to lock your car doors upon your arrival… otherwise, you might return home just to find a trunk or back seat full of zucchini and summer squash!!

(Year-old raspberries, and broom corn)


Here’s hoping you’ll have a great day!