Gardener's Porn

So I finally got my seed order together. I order from Fedco Seeds. It's a co-op in Maine. They have great prices, no GMO seeds and they do no business with Monsanto.

When my seeds arrived I had a refund for the eggplant I ordered. Since I never grew eggplant before, I had my heart set on this one particular variety "Rosa Bianca". Seeds Of Change didn't have it anymore. I finally found seeds at Baker Creek heirloom seeds. I spent $3 just for shipping. I got an extra packet of seed so I don't run out and I can share with my seed exchanging buddy Christy.

I took all my catalogs to the office I work in and explained how they are gardener's Porn. Seed catalogs sell a fantasy. In their pages there is the perfect amount of rain every season. There are no bugs, rabbit, voles or grubs. The vegetables are blemish free and never have blossom end rot.

In January the gardener is a motivated human with big dreams and HUGE ideas. By August a gardener is just a human with a lot of zuchinni.

Long time no post

The holidays are over. We have a little bit over a foot of snow. The boy has started skiing (strap on skis) and we are enjoying the snow.

I pruned the raspberries before the snow. Seed catalogs have arrived and I'm working up an order.

Frost

The frost was finally real. We had a couple of frosts that were light and didn't kill anything 5 inches above the ground, but last week was for real. The next door neighbor and I picked tons of raspberries the night before the frost. Now it's time to cut everything back and clean up. I love the Fall. It's a lot of hard work.

It's been a long time.

Garden is almost done and I'm cleaning it out. I should plant garlic. We don't have wood yet and I haven't even begun to make applesauce. Yikes! More later hopefully with pictures.

Latest Reading List

Harry Potter (finished)
Maxed Out (not started yet)
Four-Season Harvest (in the middle)
Barbara Kingsolver's new book about local eating(I'm on the list at the library.)
Food Not Lawns (Again, waiting to hear from the library.)

Why we do this

I want my son to grow up appreciating hard work and even enjoying it.

It's been too long

I finally have pictures of the garden to post. They are at least a month old now. The peas have all been sheared off and died, the beans (once I got the bean poles to stay up) have just fizzled, the corn looks a little bit suspect, I have Japanese Beetles in the raspberries and voles keep eating my tiny cucumbers. I do have summer squash and beets (they taste like corn). The tomatoes look good but only the cherry tomatoes are ripening so far.

I'm doing well with flowers. Japanese Beetles like zinnias.