As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is June 12 as I type this, and here am I reflecting on the Pioneer Garden that TL and I have, in a former pig sty, rock dump and hog pasture, which our neighbor kindly used his Kubota tractor and loader to skid the sod off and dig some rocks out.
We planted Yukon Gold potatoes, and about 15 Purple Viking from sets we had from last year. The Yukon are quite tall, while the Viking are more squat. I am thinking we will only do Yukon next year, as they do not make me sick, keep well, and I can use them for just about all the potato things we need.
I ordered Quinalt strawberries, put them into planting pots as they came early in the coof and they are transplanted now and started to look nice.
We moved in Gramm Pollock's sweet red rhubarb which Daisy had not killed off by eating them to make a point that she was upset with me for Jersey cow reasons. 7 plants and all look pretty good.
Then there is the Bohemian horseradish, which I had growing, some Egyptian walking onions, some garlic top bulb sets, Yugoslavian variety, which I did not get planted quick enough and lost half, and some grocery store pumpkins we saved seeds out of, because I like the non flavor for George Washington pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.
Some little Collective Farm Woman melons and that is the east side of the garden.
Next to the potatoes which are in two center row trenches for watering, I put up a hog panel to run a German cucumber I like and I am trying a Quebec muskmelon this year. I usually do the Little Grey Quebec melons as they grow here, but I could not find seed and the replacements were too expensive, so this is what we are trying.
Oh and on the east side I have Armenian cucumbers.
To the south of the cukes is my Black Hills Special field corn. Heirloom for when we get our place. There is not any hybrid corn around us this year, so this will be uncontaminated stock.
Next to the hog panel I have two rows of Bantam sweet corn. It was very old seed I had, and it all came up. Wonder of wonders in God's doing.
I plan to sneak in two red Pear tomatoes that just sprouted, if they do not die before the transfer.
We have tomatoes a Sweet 100 and Big Boy on the corner on the north side by the CFW.
The potatoes are doing ok. TL pulled off a potato bug larva and I killed an adult the next day, and I have not seen any more of them. I am hoping not as the Robin's hunt in the garden for worms for their babies.
To the west of the potatoes are our onions. I never could grow them, but we have them in a trench, and am watering the size into them, so we shall see. That is a row and a half, and on the end of the second row we have Detroit Dark Red Beets. That is the best crop of them I have ever had, in they came up, few weeds and the leaves look silky.
On the south side of all of this I have some Shumway purple pole beans. They are not germinating at the same time and am not pleased.
Starting the east side, I have short rows. That is where the asparagus is, some galic top sets, then comes a little row of red lettuce, our apple rootstock and trees which I will plant later, our weed patch of lambsquarter, and then comes the too old of seeds in 4 Hailstone radish came up for seed and we have 5 Blonde chard, which is not chard, because it does not taste strong like chard.
Next stop is our cabbage, 4 heads. I had to powder them with Seven as the brocolli. I have no idea what the variety was in this coof as they ones I always plant were not there, and this is what was there, so they are growing and we shall see what they amount to.
Finishing out that end block is a Sugar Drip sorghum. It came up, and is for seed as the rest is the future.
On the very end is a Sunshine squash we were given. It is very nice in squash soup, which is why I am growing it. Little things but are not that awful squash flavor which tastes like puke to me.
On the fence are Lemon cucumbers and going back north is a Blauhild German pole bean, which sprouted very well, but we shall see how good the beans were as they looked crossed last year out of the old bean seeds I had.
There is no room in the garden for anything else. it is 32 by 46 feet. It is still too small really, but it was moving in year, and I have hopes for more things when the hard work is taken out by a tractor and the tiller.
The soil is a mix of sand and hard clay, with rocks I keep clinking when I dig deep. The digger will pull them out and make the soil mind by breaking it up deep, but the garden is behaving rather well for being pioneer soil of no the best quality, but I like sand as I can work with that in cow shit compost to make it mind me better. Sand sprouts seeds while clay which is along the fence has to be watered or it turns into a hard crust that seeds have to work to break through.
I'm really happy with this garden though. It is not the black loam which I have had or most of you have, providing you do not live in bunghole South areas with that brown powder stuff clay or that gumbo stick calf shit in the American West.
I have had cinder pile from where people dumped wood ashes which was hard as rock, feedlots where the dung was to dry, and sloughs were it was clay and cracks you could hear Chinese talking through in being so big and deep. None of which raised gardens, but raise a great deal of anguish and frustration.
I already know where the garden is going on our future place as I have it picked up. God has to move people with money and the land to us though. In the meantime, I'm satisfied with this garden. We have a well so the water is basically free and I can water the blessings into it and being basically virgin soil, it has the nutrients for the plants yet, and I will work on compost to feed the soil and make this into something which when I touch the soil, I will like Goldie Locks say it is just right. Now when I touch it, I usually frown like the Bears in it being too hard clay, to hard cinder or too sandy. Good gardens are made, and we are making this one by God's Grace into what it should be.
The problem is this is a homestead, by an old bachelor back in the 1880's. It was a hard luck farm as most years it did not produce anything but debt. There was one family that had about a 30 year stretch of some stability, but the old gal died in the 30's I think, and then it was just passed around as no one wanted it and those on it, never took care of, they were land rapists. They took all they could and gave nothing back. That only depletes the soil and grows weeds, and that is what we have a great deal of as the land heals.
I have my dreams of the Vibrashank Digger and tractor to root deeply, as this soil was hogs and weeds would not even grow in spots as the sand just blew in storms. Rototilling the compost in then will provide the correct mix of sand, clay and loam. That reality appears and then gardening will be easy, as any fool can garden in soil like that.
For now the land is getting to know us. The weeds are no longer screaming and scaring the plants which are supposed to grow, and order is emerging and the regimented garden is responding to the care as much as the land as it knows it is broken and can no longer grow weeds, fight the human in a curse or just be lazy like 3rd world trash. This is a proper German garden which grows with pride and Lutheran Glory for God, just as all the Germans and Scandinavians here only produced Saxon gardens, and not those English plots which God always had to help grow as they were so English.
Yes I have a few sod patches that I need to pry out in the corner and side, as the neighbor did not do the precision I had hoped for, but that is part of enjoying working with the soil, and the plants will notice me about it, and proudly vibrate that they are in a home which is Germanic and we are not going to tolerate any disorder.
Achtung, Gemüse, Mama kommt mit der Hacke.
Nuff Said
agtG
