God Saw That it Was Good

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 

Genesis 1:11-12

In our Sunday School class, we're going through the Book of Genesis.  It is such an interesting study.  Eleven verses into the book, God caused the earth to sprout vegetation.  Remarkable!  In addition to creating plants and making them grow, He created a system in which plants would create its seed so that it would produce more of the same type of vegetation year after year.  He later enlisted the birds of the sky to help spread the seed and honeybees to pollinate.  So intricate.  The interdependencies and synergy.  I often wonder what the Garden of Eden looked like.  Prior to the introduction of sin and the curse that fell on the land, it must have been a sight to behold.

Thousands of years have passed, but if you're in the garden, you can still catch glimpses of God and His ordered plan.  I want to show you an example today.  This morning it was early.  The sun was not positioned high enough in the sky yet to begin to shine at an angle to touch the garden with direct light.  I was out on one of the garden rows looking at the broccoli and the tiny pearls of dew that covered the leaves.  At intervals, a breeze would blow pushing one dewdrop into a few others and the resulting weight of the dewdrop would roll down the leaf and onto the ground beneath the broccoli.  In a few short hours, the dew would all be burned off.

This row of broccoli has already been harvested one time.  By that, I mean that the big head of broccoli has been picked quite a while ago.  What you see below are the little florets of broccoli that come out all over the plant.

These florets must be picked every other day, especially as it warms up.  They grow so quickly!  What you are witnessing is God's plan enacted in Genesis 1:11 where he directed vegetation to make seed after its kind.  The broccoli, since the main head has been harvested, is working overtime to ensure that seed is dispersed to give the next generation of broccoli a chance to grow.

Those little florets will turn very quickly into a gazillion yellow flowers.  The honeybees will visit the flowers and do their thing.  Those flowers will eventually produce seeds in little pods.  Once the pods are dried, you can winnow them and save the seeds for next year, since these are non-hybrid seeds.  They produce SO many little black seeds.  I have lots of broccoli seeds saved and some purchased in envelopes, so we'll not save any this year.

Instead, we'll continue to pick florets every other day.  We eat a bunch fresh, but with these in this basket, we blanched them, quickly chilled them and put them in ziploc bags in the freezer.  This basket made two quart-sized bags full of blanched broccoli.  We'll enjoy that later.

If you look at about the "3 o'clock position" in the basket below, you can see a floret or two with flowers JUST ABOUT to open.  These were picked at the last possible moment!

God's handiwork in action in the garden.  Just like in that first garden so many years ago.  As I was thinking about propagation in the plant family, I was thinking about God's directive to Man to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it..."  I read that in 2021 the average woman in the U.S. gave birth for the first time at 27.3 years of age.  The average family in the U.S. has 1.94 kids.  As a society, we aren't exactly being fruitful and multiplying anymore.  We had 3 kids and Tricia and I often think about it wish that we would have had more children.  Obviously we are happy with the kids God blessed us with.

Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.  Psalm 127: 3-4

 When God looked at His creation, God saw that it was good.  In Genesis 1:31 He saw all that He had made and behold, it was VERY good.

Spring Garden in Late April (Part II)

Back again.  Here is the second half of the garden update.  After the four rows of onions, we have two rows of tomatoes.  I had a catastrophe this year with all my planted tomato seeds.  I lost almost all of them.  I supplemented with (mostly) heirloom varieties that we purchased at a local nursery.

It won't be that much longer before we have red ripe tomatoes!

I have another row of corn.  This one is a shoepeg corn called "Country Gentleman."  I like that name.  The corn is a whitish color and it is sweet.  The weird thing about it is that the kernels aren't in uniform rows like most other corn.  the kernels are randomly spread.  I'll explain better with a photo once we harvest.

I have four varieties of okra planted this year: Clemson Spineless, Beck's Big Okra, Burgundy Okra, and Jing Orange Okra.  We ran completely out of okra this year before "gumbo season" was over.  Shame!  That won't happen again.

Here is a little plot of rainbow chard.  You can see how it gets its name.  The one with bright yellow veins and stems is hidden behind the other leaves.  The greens and stalks are sweet and very healthy.

From left to right in the photo below:

Amaranth!  Now, I've never grown or eaten this before, so this is a new thing.  It is supposed to be very healthy and a high source of protein.  I'm learning something new here.

Bull's Blood beets: We're harvesting beets almost every day now and eating them with every meal.  

Black Turtle Beans:  These will be over-running the beets soon.  We dry these and then make refried black beans.  We really like them with fresh-made tortillas!

And that about wraps up the garden, except for the potato patch and the melon patch.  Maybe I'll show you that next week?

Making the Most of It

Our tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant that we planted from seed at the end of December continue to grow.  In previous years, we struggled with them getting long and "leggy."  We solved it this year simply by putting the grow light real close to the young plants.  It is high time to get them outside.  We need to harden them off to get ready for transplanting into the garden.  They need to get exposed to a little cool, a little wind, and definitely more sun.  How will we do that?  Temps are still too cold overnight, and we don't have a greenhouse.

Young Plants in the Foyer

Tricia had a great idea.  We have a chicken tractor that isn't being used to raise chickens in for at least another month.  We can use it to raise plants in until it is time to put them in the garden.  How will we convert a chicken tractor into a greenhouse?

We found a heavy-duty plastic tarp that allows sunshine in, but stops the wind while searching the Internet.  After quick measurements, we found one that matched the dimensions perfectly.  In two days it came to the front door.  We rolled it out and fastened it to the sides of the chicken tractor with zip ties.  This thing is beginning to look like a greenhouse!

We moved the plastic table into the greenhouse that we normally use to cut up our chickens after butchering.  Seemed only fitting while we are finding dual purposes for things.  The trays of plants fit on it perfectly.  The ends were closed it to keep out the weather and we anchored it to the ground so the wind wouldn't blow it over.  Grow lights were hung from the roof on a chain so that we could adjust the height. 

The garden hose nozzle was set to mist and we watered the plants.

At night the greenhouse is aglow with light.  This evening the temperatures dipped down into the 30's so we wondered what we were going to do.  We decided while we are using items previously used only for raising chickens, we might as well use the heat lamps that we normally use to keep the baby chicks warm in the brooder.

Ordinarily, on a cold night like tonight, I'd bring all the plants in since they would be in a cold frame on the back patio.  Tonight since they are protected in our new makeshift greenhouse, I'll take a chance and leave them outside.  If I can get them through another couple of weeks, I'll transplant them into the garden, leaving the greenhouse/chicken tractor vacant.  Then we'll order the chicks!

Things Couldn't be More Different...

In the mornings I wake up early and commute 42 miles to work.  Sometimes, depending on traffic, the drive only takes me 40 minutes.  Other times it may take me an hour and 40 minutes.  The commute is actually a peaceful time for me as I usually quickly catch the news on the radio while I drink my coffee and then I turn off the radio and pray.  Before I know it, I'm turning into the parking lot at work.  I work with some good people and we provide a good service in keeping the cogs in the wheels of industry turning.

I was thinking the other day about how the view at work couldn't be more different than the view I have at home.  The sounds couldn't be more different either.  From time to time, we'll hear loud hissing sounds and see huge flares, like you see in the photo below.  We always joke that they just burned off more in the flare stack in value than we'll ever make in 10 lifetimes.  Black smoke will billow out and we'll hear announcements over a loudspeaker that we cannot understand.  We wonder if we should run as fast as we can.

Then at the end of the day, I hop in my car and drive back home, moving from an industrial area into a pastoral one.  The hissing sounds, flares, black smoke, and warnings are replaced by the gentle cackling of hens as they make their way to their evening roosts, the bleating of goats and lowing of cows.  Instead of looking at chemical plants, I look at real plants in our vegetable garden.  The sun sets and the light show put on in the western sky is far better than a flare stack.

I'm truly thankful to God for clean, country living.

Insurance - Sometimes A Gardener Needs It

Back on August 6th I planted our cole crops.  Several varieties of cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts were carefully planted in seed pots filled with seed starting mix.  Over the next month or so I've babied them, dutifully watering them and then two weeks ago, Russ and it planted them in the garden.

And then the rain started falling which has not let up.  In conjunction with the rain a plague of bugs like you've never seen descended upon us and the already sickly plants due to the rains were ravaged by bugs and/or worms.

Not looking good

These are a little taller than the first, but you can see the holes where the bugs and/or worms are snacking on the tender young cabbage leaves.

After a real big rain today, I walked in the garden and tried to locate the plants.  I found a few, but many had succumbed to the rain and soggy ground and bug pressure. 

Over the years I've used the practices of composting, hugelkultur, and adding topsoil and it has built up the level of the soil.  You can see how much higher the garden is than the land just to the west of the garden.  The land slopes from east to west.  Even though the garden area is higher than the surrounding areas, the soil is still saturated.  When the sun comes out, it scalds the plants and makes them sick and die.

I love to plant seeds and watch the 'dead' seed germinate and grow.  I never get tired of watching this miracle in action.  I especially like to eat the fresh vegetables that come from those tiny seeds.  I like to also plant open pollinated seeds and save the seeds that those plants eventually produce.  This year, with the many cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprout seedlings I planted now either dead or sickly, I don't know how many plants will actually survive.  So, I had to purchase a little "insurance."  I drove down to the local hardware store on my lunch break and bought some plants to take the place of the ones that are dead or ailing.

I will take care of them here on the back patio while the saturated soil dries out a little.

Then once the soil dries, I'll plant them in the garden.  Sometimes things don't always go as planned.  Weather, bugs, crop failure...  All things that just happen despite the best of intentions and best laid plans.  C'est la vie!  We keep moving forward.  Good weather is right around the corner.

A Stroll in the Garden in early May (Part 1)

When I get home from work, I like to change and go for a walk in the garden.  Once the temperatures start rising, it is truly amazing at how quickly things grow.  You can see a difference from day to day.  Let's go to the very back of the garden and work our way forward.  Here is some Swiss Chard of the Rainbow Variety.  It has bright pink stems that catch your eye.  This is a holdout from the fall garden and it is still going strong.  In a few weeks, though, bug pressure and the heat will cause its demise.  Until then we'll continue eating the leaves and feeding the lower, overgrown leaves to appreciative cows.

I have some mistakes I make in the garden that I seem to repeat every single year - planting things too close together and not thinning out plants that I didn't space correctly.  Why kill a perfectly fine vegetable plant, I always say.  Well, the cucumbers are growing like kudzu.  It is truly a jungle to walk near the vines AND to try to locate ripening cucumbers in that jungle.

The cucumber tendrils are impressive to me.  The Eddie Money song, "Baby, Hold on to me" comes to mind as I watch the cucumber tendrils holding on to the trellis for dear life.  It provides an almost elastic springiness when the winds blow, allowing the cucumbers to sway back and forth without falling.

Cucumber blossoms cover the plant, promising an over-abundance of cukes to eat, pickle and give away.  Tricia is not a big fan of cucumbers, but even she enjoys homegrown ones.  She likes to ferment them with whey and salt.  She has a half-gallon of them on the counter now that will be ready in about 3 days.

I have several varieties of corn planted this year.  The variety below is called Glass Gem corn and I can't wait to see the ears.  If they turn out like I think they will, it will be a sight to see.  I found evidence of some worm damage in the corn, and was able to find the little booger and pick him out and throw him to the hens.  They made quick work of the worm.

I have one row of two varieties of zucchini and one row of two varieties of yellow squash.  Since this photo was taken, the leaves have closed in and all you can see is lush green leaves.  Blooms are a plenty and tiny squash sit atop the bed of hay underneath the leaves.

The Contender beans are real strong this year.  Their green leaves and bushy plant spans a 15 foot row, taking up 3 full feet.  I LOVE eating fresh green beans with new potatoes and butter.  It is a favorite of mine.

Since this photo was taken, we picked a half bushel of beans and they need to be picked again.  We'll eat all we can and then blanch and freeze some, can some, and pickle some.  White blooms promise many more.  As these plants play out, we'll plant more so that we have a never-ending supply all summer.

Our bell pepper plants are short right now, but they have nice peppers on them.  Tricia has already made stuffed bell peppers for us.  Delicious!

The jalapeno plants aren't playing around.  They are producing in prolific quantities.  We have lots frozen from last year.  I may have to find some new recipes to use them up.  I saw jalapeno brownies the other day as well as chocolate chip jalapeno cookies.  Interesting!

Finally, the banana peppers.  I used my noggin this year and planted them far away from the jalapenos.  Last year the banana peppers were near-by and they crossed with the jalapenos, making very hot banana peppers. 

I like to pickle these and keep them in the fridge where they are cool and crispy.  They complement rice & gravy perfectly well.

Tomorrow, we'll stroll a few rows up and see what else is going on.

Starting the Garden in January

Early January is cold - even in the deep south - but it is time to get the tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant growing.  On January 3rd, I filled my little seed pots with seed starting medium and began planting.  I generally plant two seeds per compartment.  Usually, I'll have close to 100% germination and I'll simply separate the two seedlings and re-pot each individual plant into a larger cup so they don't get root-bound.

After all the seeds are planted, I cover them with about 1/8 inch of seed starting mix and use a sprayer to moisten the soil.  This will make the seeds swell and they'll begin their transformation from a dead seed into a growing plant.  As many times as I've seen it, the way the seed transforms into life is a true miracle from God to me.

Now obviously seeds don't need light until they sprout and begin getting leaves.  Until such time, I bring the containers inside and cover tightly with a plastic bag.  This keeps the soil warm, but most importantly, retains soil moisture so the seeds will swell and begin doing their thing.

In less than a week, we have seedlings springing forth!  They now want light and they jump out of the ground to get it.  You have to be careful or they'll get 'leggy.'  I take the shop light inside from where it normally hangs over my workbench and I position it above the tiny seedlings, propped up by some canned goods.  The grow light has a special fluorescent bulb for growing plants in it.  It gives off a pinkish-colored light.  My growing area is in the utility room above the cabinets.  It stays warm up there and the plants seem to like it.  I keep spraying the seedlings and keeping the soil moist so they plants are never in stress.

The seedlings all germinate at different times.  First the tomatoes, then the peppers, and then the eggplant.  I move them from where I have them sitting in the foyer to the utility room as soon as they sprout.

After about two and a half weeks, the tomatoes all have their true leaves and are growing vigorously.  I have to be real methodical in my watering as the soil dries out fast in the little seed pots.  Probably this Sunday I'll separate and re-pot them into bigger cups that will give their roots room to stretch out.

They are some healthy little plants right now.  Usually after I re-pot them, I'll water them with some diluted fish emulsion.  This gives them a little fertilizer and gives them a nice, healthy color.  We want them to be at their very best when we put them in the ground.  We still have a ways to go, though!

I almost forgot to show you.  As I said, peppers germinate a lot more slowly than tomatoes.  Here are the seed pots of pepper plants.  They are just getting started, but they look pretty good.

Unfortunately, everything doesn't look good.  These are the remaining seed pots in the foyer.  They haven't sprouted yet and if they don't soon, I'll give up on them.

As I was going through my inventory of seeds, I ran across seeds that I had saved from various open pollinated varieties back in 2012 - 2014.  Yes, they are old seed, but I wanted to see which seed I should keep and which I should remove from inventory.  Now, I know!

Even though it is too cold to do much garden prep outside, there's still some gardening to do inside.  And that is a good thing, indeed.