Confessions of a NeoFarmer

Saved by the Collards

I’m wrapping up my second summer’s attempt at farming. How’d I do? I guess I’d give myself a C+. Ok, I really sucked. We definitely ate out of the garden so that’s good, but this is trickier than I thought!

My first issue was the blossom-end rot on my tomatoes. Just when my plants were looking full and lush, this began to occur. As per a few tips a gleaned from the internet, I sprinkled some Epsom salt and crumbled up eggshells and tooled that into the soil. Things improved but I never got the bounty the early blooms seemed to promise.

Dang, I thought anybody could grow tomatoes!

My little yellow, pear-shaped lovelies provided most of my tomatoes for the season.

Next came the squash and cucumber tragedy. We had eaten several cucumbers and enjoyed a couple of pots of yellow squash when the dreaded white mildew decided to take the lion’s share.

We learned late in the game that a wash of 1 part skim to 9 parts water sprayed on the leaves and fruit would eradicate this offender. It did seem to work, but not before the plants were stunted with current fruits shriveled and no new blooms to speak of.

We gave up on these guys and put in some eggplants instead. We enjoyed a couple of eggplant  Parmesan dishes before it was all said and done so this was a nice little bit of success but it was just that… a little bit of success. I’m no farmer but I’m trying.

Thank goodness for the green beans and okra stalks. They fed us pretty well through the heat of summer and so encouraged me to not feel like a complete failure. I’ve saved some green bean seeds and let the last of the okra pods dry on the vine. I’ll want to produce these again next year.

Now I’m wondering if it just takes a greater sense of awareness. I need to apply the kind of mindfulness I’m encouraging in all other aspects of life to my gardening efforts. I’ll be conscious of checking on things to catch problems early react to issues as they arise. If I run to the garden to hurriedly get my ‘tasks’ checked off my list I’m going to miss these important things! And I’ll also miss the joy of working the earth.

I’ve used no poisons and only a small amount of organic fertilizer and I’m proud of that. My intention is to keep it that way. Perhaps it’ll take more tries and more diligence but that’s okay. I’ve got the rest of my life to figure this out.

But of course, gardening is cyclical. Now comes the cool weather and contrary to popular belief you can garden throughout the year. I’ll try more leafy greens this winter. And I see they are coming along. I’ve already added a few mustard greens to my salads and the swiss chard is not far behind. And boy did we enjoy our collards last winter. Yes, quite a bit and I see they are popping up already.

Richard cooks a mean pot of greens and I can’t wait to enjoy a mess. Go collards go! I’ll be watching and hoping they shall be my redemption!

More to come!!!

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