July 01, 2019
The blackberries are growing profusely this spring. My entire garden is now surrounded by them. The solitude and privacy of an enclosed garden is well worth having to cut them back from time to time. They provide more shade than I would prefer but it can make gardening more interesting. Watching plants lean into the garden to avoid the shadow of their presence keeps you aware of how significant the sky is..
If you painted a piece of plywood white, and leaned it up against a blackberry covered fence line, would the plants grow straight up? Photons are a part of a gardeners cognizance, as is water, air, soil and plant needs. These components of life fascinate our imaginations and can fill us with a sense of wonder. We are but mere participants in a dance of life, no more or less than the trees and stars, but we can imagine, and create, and that makes us unique and worthwhile. Maybe even special? We would like to hope..
July 02, 2019
A great way to derive additional value from your gardening efforts is to feed the garden waste to rabbits and chickens. Growing meat and eggs is a step up on the ladder of life's complexities and is earth friendly. Suddenly weeds take on new value, weeding gets more significant, and gardening is enriched by it's inclusion of animal protein rewards. My garden mulching with waste products also produces animal protein in the form of earthworms and night crawlers..
Much less palletable than bunny and hen, but not less beneficial. If you've ever eaten escargot you can realize that properly prepared night crawlers could taste delicious. They would have to be cleaned out by feeding them oatmeal for a week, like they do with snails, but simmered in garlic and butter they would probably taste the same..
July 03, 2019
July brings with it the increase of water to the garden. You need to ramp it up a bit to keep up with rising temperatures. I've gotten so focused on keeping the plants from wilting, and trying to water them ahead of their actual need, that I lost sight of the fact that the ground needs to dry out a bit between waterings to prevent diseases. We all tend to water on the heavy side because we want to feel responsible for our plants success, and seeing them wilt makes us feel guilty for neglecting them..
There is an optimum time to water but it can be elusive. Different types of soil have different water storing capacities, and even in the same garden you can find areas that require different watering schedules, depending on what crops are planted there. I have a corn patch that could grow rice because every time I water the ground becomes a swamp..
