Happy Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

I am so thankful for you. 

Your hard work and advice and encouragement and donations of time, sweat, and money,  have made this year the best ever and the most successful one yet in the Victory Garden. And yes, each minute and dollar and donated supply is valuable, needed, and most appreciated.

"God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” Hebrews 6:10

This year already we have harvested and donated to God's hungry children 5,790 pounds. And we have received the greater blessing! And we provided flowers to help brighten the days of many patients in the Baptist Trinity Hospice and area nursing homes.

The soil is in the best condition ever. The winter garden has sprouted. The garden has received its winter coverlet of organic material. We will harvest more turnips greens and Savoy cabbages for the Food Pantry for their Christmas baskets on December 20. We have been blessed with visits and comments and help from so many children and adults. Our 2013 fund is more than adequate. Collierville Christian Church continues to support and encourage us. Our reach into the community continues to grow. 

I continue to dream of a large garden with lots of annual flowers, room for families to have their own garden spots, and us growing more food than the needy of Collierville can use. The Memphis Food Bank needs our excess. What a blessing for us!

God bless you and your family and friends. I wish you happiness, safe trips, bountiful feasts, good health, and joy.

Carl Wayne

 

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”  

...or a stack of burlap bags, or hoe in hand, or fresh shelled butter beans, or tomato plants, or worm castings, or  seeds, or fertilizer, or garlic, or advice, or encouragement....
― Linda Grayson

I am only one, / But still I am one. / I cannot do everything, / But still I can do something; / And because I cannot do everything, / I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. -Edward Everett Hale, author (1822-1909)

James Richard Jones

Pay attention: If you want to "plant it and forget it," you're better off buying your vegetables at the farmer's market. A garden requires attention. Visit your garden daily; it's a lovely way to start the day or de-stress after work. You'll spot weeds, insects, beans or squash that need to be harvested or overgrown plants that need pruning or staking when the problem is small and easily handled. You will find that paying attention to your vegetable plot helps put you in touch with the whole natural world: the weather, the rain, what's sprouting or hatching or blooming or fruiting. And you'll have the steady satisfaction of watching your garden grow.

A good read:

One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka:

http://idc-america.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/One_Straw_Farming_Fukuoka.pdf

 

Invariably our peasant visitors were puzzled about our opposition to

ploughing. I would dig up some soil and show them how many more

insects and worms we had. Farmers had no difficulty understanding that

those were our ploughmen. I used to ask them, with so many millions of

tireless ploughmen in the soil, where was the need for us to plough?

Some observant visitors used to point to weeds, cobwebs, frogs, algae,

and other signs of untidiness in our fields. I used to tell them that if they

compared their own crop with ours they would find our input costs lower

and yields much higher. The choice was theirs.