How Our Garden Grows

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Sept. 26 — One garden: 4,353 lbs! We’re still picking … 210 lbs. last Saturday. We managed to harvest a dozen watermelons…2 bags of broccolli..2 bags of okra…a few beans…4 flats of tomatoes…a dozen butternut squashes…and our last cauliflower. On Saturday, the crops looked good.

Sunday was a different story. I went to check the garden at 6:30 in the AM, the sign at the bank said 31 degrees. I know those things aren’t reliable, but it sure felt like it!  I was wearing my long pants!!! those things are for winter…but there was a "nip" in the air. The watermelons and sweet potatoes proved it…bit by frost. I ran the sprinklers for two-and-a-half hours, hoping it would help "lessen" the damage to the crop…but I was too late! 

The end of the season always comes so quickly. Even though it’s been more than four months since we first stuck tiny plants in the dirt, it seems like the growing season has zoomed by. There’s nothing that can match the satisfaction of working in the garden…pulling weeds…checking plants…sharing w/ the kids from the St. Therese daycare… working with our group of volunteers … and taking the harvest to ICA Food Shelf. Good memories….good works!

It’s time to put da garden to bed…for the season.

“How our Garden Grows” will be back next May. Start planning your spring planting now!