“To husband is to use with care, to keep, to save, to make last, to conserve. Old usage tells us that there is a husbandry also of the land, of the soil, of the domestic plants and animals - obviously because of the importance of these things to the household. And there have been times, one of which is now, when some people have tried to practice a proper human husbandry of the nondomestic creatures in recognition of the dependence of our households and domestic life upon the wild world. Husbandry is the name of all practices that sustain life by connecting us conservingly to our places and our world; it is the art of keeping tied all the strands in the living network that sustains us."
--Wendell Berry, "Bringing it to the Table"
Here at Hines Terrace, we love growing a garden and everything that goes with it. It is something we did as children and something we are so glad that we have added into our adult life. We begin growing a garden together in summer of 2010. We started small with just two raised beds made out of wood from our old deck and an old wooden flower bed that I used for the first of my several failed corn "crops". Each year we do a little more and there has been talk about "plowing up" the whole backyard, but more rational forces have prevailed. This year, we weren't real sure about how we were going to grow much of anything because so much of our efforts have been put into growing this guy:
However, seeds were bought, chicken manure and compost were added, beds were mended, soil was added and then turned, weeds were picked, and Mel's articulate plans (See Below! Even her plans look like a piece of art!) were made all in grand detail. And so a garden was meant to be and on a fine evening somewhere between me arriving home late due to it being track & field season and feeding and bathing Fordzilla, Mel placed the majority of the seeds in the ground as I watched young FH. We had planted the potatoes and the tomatoes about a week or so earlier. And so, here is a small pictorial with a little explanation of our 2013 edition garden. These pictures are a few weeks old and there will be an update, but for now, here it is for better or worse.
The articulate and masterful garden sketches of one Sweet Melissa.
A view from the top! Our yard is oddly terraced and we have chosen the garden to be in our bottom yard a few more inches away from our dogs. It is still not safe, but at least the thought makes us feel better. Jack is a closet vegan. What can we say? At night, he eats his weight in anything from peppers to cucumbers! We have four raised beds that are 4'x8' and two that are 4'x4'. We originally bought the cheap soil and added about a bag or two of the Black Cow compost. Now we just add a few more bags of the cheap soil and our homemade concoction we'll call Four Bawdy Hens. Either way, things seem to love growing in the organic matter of others and we take advantage of that. The new way is just a bit cheaper and we don't have to leave the house.
A view from the bottom! This pic really shows off the herbs. They have really taken to their witness protection move from their place on the deck. I know this sounds like hyperbole, but trust me, they were witness to many crimes committed at the paws of one brown and one black pup. In all actuality, we stole the "herbs in a raised bed idea" from Callaway Gardens two years ago during a visit to see the lights. I thought they had all died and we were going to have to start from scratch, but once the weather turned a little warmer and the Spring rains became abundant that came back with a vengeance minus the basil. We have already had to trim the rosemary and the cilantro back twice.
The potatoes and the cucumbers. We started both from seeds or from the eyes. Nothing grows more quickly than potatoes; well except maybe weeds, but they do grow very fast. You can actually plant them two or three times before the weather turns cold again. We picked up the little white fences under the extreme bargain table of our local Ace Hardware. I think we paid about $.50 a piece for them. When the prices are that heap, it really is the place!
The tomatoes. We have had touch and go luck with our tomatoes. Some years, we have a bounty and others we just can't seem to get many. I will say they are a tricky fruit to grow. Last year, I thought it was a lean year, till our neighbor thanked us one night in passing for all the tomatoes we were giving her and that they were so good. We said that she was welcome, but we started guarding the produce a little more closely and found her son was raiding it about once a day and taking them to his mom. A brief scolding was given and her source of veggies dried up, but what are we suppose to do, let the kid and Jack steal everything that comes out of the ground? I think not!
We usually start with the small plants instead of the seeds. This year we went with two Big Boy varieties, two Roma varieties, one husky red cherry variety, and our first heirloom variety, the Golden Jubilee. We are pretty excited about the latter. The tomato cages we were getting at our local places were just not working for us, so Mel's gracious and kind dad built us some "real" cages and they are seem to really be doing the trick.
An inside look at one our Roma plants. Grow, grow, grow. We've got Caprese salad on the brain!
This bed is our catchall bed this season. And the only item that is really going so far is our Egyptian Crawling onion we bought at our local market. I also thought it had died, but it has come back in a grand way. I used to not be that big of a fan of a green onion in food or with a meal, but these have changed my mind and I can't get enough of them. Besides the onion, the bed is planted with peppers, zinnias, and watermelons (our first try with these too!).
An up-close picture of the Egyptian Crawling Onion. It blooms and then if you plant the bloom, it too becomes another plant. Pretty neat, right? Right. Especially, since it only cost $5.
The first of our herb beds. This one contains cilantro, mint, some newly planted garlic, and some very slow-growing basil. I may splurge on some basil plants because I've got too many plans for basil this summer for it to be taking forever to grow!
Our second herb bed. This one contains thyme, rosemary, parsley, chives, and oregano. As I mentioned earlier, they all looked dead and far past their prime, but they have come back in a big way. If you have ever cooked or eaten food with real, fresh herbs in it, you know the taste is hard to beat. We love using these and that is good because with herbs, the more you use them, the better they grow.
One of the pretty blooms on our chives.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed and I hope your garden is coming in well. We love our little backyard, "victory" garden and are excited to see what it will make this year. We look forward to growing it all year and this year, we are going to try to save, can, freeze, etc as much of it as we can so that we enjoy it even longer than in the past. You would be amazed at the amount of food that come from a garden even as small as ours.
Happy Reading,
David
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