The garlic is getting large. Two elephant garlic of 22 I planted Dec. 19 have peeked they trunks (shoots) above ground. I dug under one last week and saw it had not begun to sprout but already had a powerful root system.
The turnips continue to grow as do the carrots, onyuns, and daikons.
A beautiful redtail hawk was perched on our gate. I managed to get a distant picture. Bluebirds were perched on the back fence. I hope you can see them in the picture below.
I am advising an Eagle Scout candidate who is building a community garden at the Schilling YMCA,
a church in Collierville who wants to build a garden, and a homeowner in Eads.
I give them these sine qua non bon mots:
1. Gotta have sunshine, water, living soil, and protection from critters.
2. Gotta have a list of volunteers signed up to work a given shift at least every week or two.
3. A garden is an almost every day commitment for someone.
On that last point, an old adage is the best fertilizer is the feet (some say shadow) of the farmer. That is so true. One must be on constant look out for bugs, weeds, soil moisture level, whether or not the seeds have sprouted, and much much more.
This constant attention also keeps you in tune with nature. People ask me when do I plant. I can give them some rules of thumb, but in truth, that decision is based on ones sense of the soil, the possibility of rain or frost, and the short and midterm temperature expectations. That comes with experience.
I learned so much from my inlaws Ralph and Opal Graham. One of his frequent sayings about spending a lot of quality time in the garden was: You could lose a crop. For subsistence farmers of the generation previous to him, that could be catastrophic.
Its the same with cattle. He said they need looking after every day even though he only had a few at a time, had plenty of pasture grass, and a pond for them to drink from. You need to see if one in injured, has a cold (nose is running), has an eye problem, or is ready for the vet to come by and inseminate her (her behavior is telling). Losing a cow, or trying to sell a sick or injured cow, or missing a cow by missing a reproductive cycle, is a big loss to a small farmer.
So I try to get by the garden at least every other day all year long, if for no other reason than to meditate and be thankful!
Ain't God good!
cw
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| Bluebird on blue post |
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| Elephant garlic trunk peeking out |
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| Beautiful garlic patch |
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| My Rocinante |
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| some turnips still growing |
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| Retail hawk on middle fence post |
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