I get so excited when I plant seeds for a new garden or bed. The on-going sense of expectation, just waiting for those little shoots to peek through the soil and make their grand appearance. It’s almost as stressful as Christmas – but not quite. You would think it would be a simple process of taking your seeds, placing them in the dirt, pouring on a little water and letting God handle the rest. With gardens, nothing is ever that simple. Of course, every type of seed has different needs and germination periods. Carrots need light to germinate. Lettuce needs soil temperature to be 65 degrees or less. Sugar snap peas need to soak overnight in water before planting. Love those radish – just stick them in the ground! It’s almost a science project - researching the vegetable and the most efficient ways to plant, grow and harvest. What happened to the days of just sticking the seed in some dirt and waiting for it to grow? Well, we still do that – but in our modern society we tend to analyze things to the extreme. I am not arguing that research in horticultural processes is not beneficial, just saying sometimes I wish things could be simple.
So we’ve been working away on our Fall garden – building a new bed, mixing in new soil and mulch in the old beds, cleaning up vines and debris in the garden, building a frame for shade cloth over the lettuce bed, and finally planting. I put in a few seedlings to allow for a longer rotation with our lettuce and kale crops. I also planted cabbage and broccoli seedlings just because we are growing those vegetables for us – not to sell – so they are in smaller quantities (well, I got a little carried away with the 45 day cabbage so we might have a few of those to sell). I planted seeds for carrots, radish, several varieties of lettuce, bunching onions (what my Granddaddy called spring onions), sugar snap peas, Swiss chard, and a few standard and miniature beets. I still have some spinach and purple bunching onions to plants and then our beds will be complete. I have actually controlled myself very well this season. I am awful about buying more seedlings wherever I go and then being in a fix to find room to plant them! I started planting seeds a few weeks ago and have been planting every 7-10 days to extend our harvest time. I faithfully check the beds every day looking for the green leaves pushing through the soil. The radish were the first to appear with their little heart shaped leaves. We finally have those bright green spikes for the onions and carrots. The varied leaves of the lettuce mix and colorful variety of the beets and chard have popped up, too. I get so excited when they finally sprout! I just want to run around the beds and yell, “They’re here! They’re here!” This would embarrass my family to no end, so I try to restrain myself.
I have reached the stage in the garden’s progression where I go out every day to water and check the growth of my seeds. And then Friday – the unthinkable happened. Four of my cabbage were missing – not just leaves but the whole plant bitten off at the ground. Three of the broccoli were stripped down to twigs. I ran down to the dollar store and bought them out of garlic power. Then I went inside and cut up all my Irish Spring soap into chunks. There I went tossing out soap blocks and sprinkling garlic around the gardens and beds. I know many don’t believe these methods work in keeping out deer and other pests, but so far they have been successful for us. Saturday morning I went out to check all my beds and I had been attacked again during the night. Armadillos! I can honestly say I hate those things. They found their way into my sugar snap peas and rooted most of them up. I replanted what I could and said a prayer they would recover. They haphazardly worked their way around several beds and through the lettuce. No major damage, but I don’t think we have had this problem before. I guess I will research home remedies for armadillo prevention now. I guess they like their sugar snap peas with garlic. It’s always something with a garden.
I know many people don’t understand the enjoyment I get from my gardens. I can’t convey the sense of pleasure and peace I get from tending the soil, watching the plants grow and then harvesting and preparing the vegetables for my family to eat. It is an amazing feeling of success and accomplishment. We eat well, too! Try it, you may like it!