Gardening
"The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden,
Than anywhere else on earth."
~Excerpt from hymn, written by Dorothy Frances Gurney 1858–1932
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden,
Than anywhere else on earth."
~Excerpt from hymn, written by Dorothy Frances Gurney 1858–1932
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“The garden is the poor man's apothecary.” ~~~Old Proverb
First day of spring 2025:
I'm sitting by my little heater, wanting to get out and forage around the yard and farm...Still a little chilly, but I might bundle up and go see what I can find. I know there are dandelions blooming, and I'm hoping the dewberries are well on their way to fruiting over the next few weeks. I'm waiting for the right time to plant a few things in the garden. The almanac is saying a couple more days until it's good for planting root crops. We have potatoes and turnips to plant. I'm going to try planting some carrots too. Then I'll have to wait a few days to plant the really nice things I look forward to. HERE is the link for the planting calendar. On the 26th – 27th of March: Good for planting cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and other vine crops. Set strawberry plants. Good days for transplanting. Favorable days for planting beets, carrots, radishes, salsify, turnips, peanuts, and other root crops. 
GARDEN SEEDS FOR HALF AN ACRE. The following seeds, with judicious management, will fully crop a garden of half an acre, which will supply a moderate sized family with vegetables throughout the year. Vegetable seeds, where carefully grown in this country, are (with a few exceptions) preferable to those imported ; but the utter carelessness manifested by many in keeping them apart when growing, is not to be recommended.
Buist's Family Kitchen Gardener, by Robert Buist, (1847) It doesn't take much for me to have gardening fever all year long. ~FW
September 2019: A few days ago I planted a small, enclosed, fall garden. I was about a month late, according to locals, and most sources. But knowing (from experience) it can be planted as late as November in our zone (climate), I went ahead and got the seeds and plants in the ground.
I planted:
NOTE: Technically this is often referred to as a fall garden, but some of these are/can be harvested during the winter and even into the early spring. Most are cold hardy down into the high 20’s, and we rarely experience these lower temperatures until late November/early December. Late Winter & Early Spring 2020:
January:
JANUARY 2021: The only thing growing is collards.
Summer 2021: We grew 2 dozen tomato plants, a few squash plants, peas, corn, and herbs.
Fall 2021: Planted Broccoli, Cauliflower, pansies and snapdragons. The flowers are beautiful, 🌺💐 the veggies have been destroyed by moths/worms. Neem oil has been ordered to try again. It might be a good idea to order frost cloth, as well. ✅ 
November 2021
I'm working on new cool weather plants: Sweet peas Greens of all sorts, mainly collards, kale, turnips and mustard. Broccoli Cauliflower Cabbage Lettuces Swiss chard Spinach Onions Late Winter & Early Spring 2022
Late January: Planted storage and store-bought potatoes.
Late Feruary: Planted more potatoes. Late March: More potatoes. Planted mustard greens and turnips in kiddy pool. Doing great so far, have eaten from them 2-3 times. April: Planted yellow summer squash, and tomatoes in enclosed fenced area. (Rabbits got through the fence and ate collards, but hoping they won't bother these.) MORE TO COME. . .We have more squash to plant as well as more summer crops. So far, 2023 has been a very good year for some of our endeavors in the garden. Plenty of red potatoes, yellow summer squash, patty pan squash, several types of peppers, several varieties of tomatoes and Icebox watermelons are the ones that have done well. . .
🥔 🍉 🌶 🍅 Of course there were some failures, some seeds just weren't viable, which is sad, but some were very viable...and we had some losses of fruit due to frost. Mainly the figs, mulberry trees and the dewberries! (The blackberries fared very well.) The vines and trees were just loaded with small fruit when the freezing temps hit and it killed all of them. And then later the heat caused some early scorched tomato plants, even though the squash has done remarkably well in the heat, which is unusual. We're still gathering small harvests, so we're happy, even though we would have liked it better had more things survived, but thankful for what we reaped. FALL 2023 has been hit and miss!
I’m so happy that at least some of the seeds I planted came up!
April 2024: The onions, carrots and greens survived the cold weather we had back in Feb.
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 My Mother of Pearl rose. . .Isn't she pretty!? How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable
antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew! ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Where there's a Will,
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