Tuesday, June 23, 2009

WOW...





What a little love and some caring from the women who tend this plot. It is so lush and lovely out there. The corn is nearly chest high. EVERYTHING is thriving, except the broccoli. Most of it already went to seed. We will see what happens to the rest of it.

So, not time for many words today, but here are photos.... they say more than I ever could.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

And on She Grows....




The farm looked so bare when we started putting seedlings in the ground, but no longer. The first round of corn is already knee high. Small green tomatoes are starting to appear. Snap peas are starting to fill themselves out, and little buds of broccoli are looking for the sun. I harvested a head of lovely oak leaf lettuce the other day when we had our first real cookout. Lettuce you grow always tastes better than lettuce you buy so the burgers were especially terrific.

I spend so much time just looking at the plants. Watching them work their magic in the soil. I wish I could participate more in the care and feeding of the farm, but since my surgery, watering is all I can do. Ah, I did plant a pot of Gerber daisies the other day. It felt good to put on gloves and get a little messy. Jenn and our friend Donna have been the farm hands for the last two weeks. I envy them, but I watch, and kibitz from the sidelines. We brought 1,500 ladybugs to defend the crops. There are already signs of attacks by worms who love the cabbage family of plants. I have to learn more about natural defenses. Soap, and saucers of beer, I have heard, work.

The chickens continue to amaze. They are growing into birds and almost all of them have lost that last little bit of baby plumage. They have eaten everything green inside the run, and everything outside of it that they can reach. They catch flies midair and love worms, which a friend's children have promised to supply all summer long. I can't wait to find that first egg. I am hoping they use the nesting boxes and don't lay under the coop. I'll have to low crawl to get it!

I am so glad that we have this bit of peace on Earth. It brings great joy and pleasure to us, and so many more of our friends and neighbors. How simple. It's not diamonds, or a fancy car. It's so much better than either of those things.