Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Earthly Treasures...

I know it's the name of my dear friend Michelle's blog but I thought in an appropriate title for today because I want to share an earthly treasure with you today...my garden.  We have dabbled in gardening since we married 19 years ago.  That's plenty of time for lots of trial and error learning!  We've planted in small flower beds outside rentals, experimented with making our own self watering containers from Rubbermaid storage containers (what a failure) and finally invested in raised beds about 5 years ago.

Even with the improved style of raised beds, we have still had struggles.  We purchase Mel Bartholomew's book, Square Foot Gardening.  As inexperienced square footers we thought we could squeeze more into our squares than the expert suggested and the result was less than satisfactory.  We found we were spending money purchasing too many plants and planting crowding them into these squares and not getting the desired results.

This year, I decided to really research and make our garden a true 'earthly treasure'.  I poured over Mel's book and added Carrots Love Tomatoes  by Louise Riotte.  I took some time and created a document in Excel that has each of our garden squares to scale.  I made a list of all the things our family loves to eat fresh from the garden and using Mel's method for number plants and Louise's method for what to plant together I devised a blueprint for every plant!!  I researched for the perfect place to purchase seeds that offered Non-GMO, Non-Hybrid, Non-Treated Heirloom seeds and I found it!!  St. Clare's Heirloom Seeds their reviews at Dave's Garden were amazing, they were helpful and quick to answer questions via email.  My seeds arrived just a few days after I placed my order with a bonus pack of seeds--Yellow Pears (Lycopersicon lycopersicum).  


I feel so 'crazy blessed' to have a husband who loves produce fresh from the garden as much as I do!  Ted loves being in the garden almost as much as I do.  He worked hard to build beautiful raised beds and an entrance to my garden area that makes my heart leap every morning when I walk beneath the melodic wind chime!  All my hard work preparing for this years garden is beginning to pay off as we have harvested the sweetest sugar snap peas, tender zucchini and yellow squash and crisp green beans!  Our cucumbers are full of blossoms and tiny cukes...the okra and corn are both standing tall, the eggplant full of blossoms and the peppers and tomatoes are covered with tiny fruit!!  I look forward to our own backyard earthly treaure making our meals 'crazy blessed' all summer long!!

"I come to the garden alone...while the dew is still on the roses..."


Green Beans


Okra

Yellow Squash