I love my garden. I love working in the dirt and caring for plants I know will yield beautifully delicious and nourishing food for my family within a short amount of time. I love watching these lovelies flower and grow and produce.
I also enjoy finding strange wonders. This year we have sunflowers we did not intentionally plant. I can only assume that the kids, or the husband, spit out sunflower seeds in the garden and the right conditions produced an amazing life form. I would guess it's over eight feet tall right now.
My compost started sprouting various plants. I'm pretty sure at one time it was sprouting beans that I had thrown in there. This compost pile (I have 4 small piles) started showing signs of life back in May. Today, it's showing signs of being a pumpkin. I can only assume it's from the seeds I discarded after actually planting pumpkin seeds in an area of the yard I thought would yield something...nope. They sprouted and promptly died. These ones are doing very well.
I can only assume this will be a pumpkin.
This year Odin wanted me to plant corn. So, as a good mother would, I did. I also planted pole beans and squashes, as per the native americans' three sisters plan. And, a sunflower, as the four sisters, some talk about. I did this purely by accident, though. Well, I planted the pole beans in between the rows of corn, as per my mother's instructions. The rest is definitely by accident.
Pole bean and flower amongst the corn stalks.
I planted lettuce last year. I let it flower because I just couldn't consume that much lettuce. It came back this year. How beautiful.
Lettuce amongst the sugar snap peas and carrots.
Every year we plant sugar snap peas. We don't actually store them or eat them at meals. My kids just like to pick them, while playing outside, and snack on them. Perfect.
Another thing I chose to do, as you can see, is use newspaper and cardboard boxes for weed prevention. It works fabulously. When the growing season ends, I will till the naturally decomposing paper into the soil, mixed with composted chicken poop and some veggie compost. Yumma.
In certain areas I have used composted pine shavings and chicken poop to give my veggies an extra boost. Around my carrots, some corn and a cucumber plant that wasn't doing so well. They are all doing brilliantly now...in case you're wondering.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
1 comment:
I planted peas with my boys for the same exact reason -- they love to pick and eat them while outside! Something tells me that your boys and mine would get along just fine.
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