Garden

 

 

 Garden

 

January 01, 2016

 

I love to garden. There is nothing better than eating a ripe, warmed by the sun, tomato picked fresh from a plant you grew yourself.

 

I guess I got my love of growing good food from my parents who were the ultimate "Homesteaders". Between my Mom and my Daddy, we kids were fed pretty dang well, and I learned a lot about gardening and preserving food during my teenage years when I was expected to help out around their little farm. I hated it then. I LOVE it now and am grateful for the lessons learned that I previously despised!

2013 tiny garden

 

I am excited to begin my garden at the new homestead. As I am just raising food for myself and not a family of 8, I don't have to have the space they did and I sincerely doubt my garden will extend into the acres that my parents had.

2015 garden-jack-o-lantern pumpkin 

 

Although I have had a small garden throughout the years, this year will find me expanding and going back to the "Heirloom" seeds and staying away from the GMO's...the genetically modified seeds that the market has been saturated with. The more we learn about these "new and improved" seeds, the less desirable they are. I would encourage any and every gardener, whether new to the soil or an old hand to use only NON-GMO seeds, before our Heirloom and organic varieties are obliterated.

 

With the Heirloom seeds making their comebacks it is easy to find seed houses and businesses. I find most of my seeds from Baker Heirloom Seeds, www.rareseeds.com, but I also have a favorite seller on EBay, Two Willies Nursery,  http://stores.ebay.com/Two-Willies-Nursery?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 and from them I was able to obtain an old French Cinderella Pumpkin that I just adore. It has an orangey/red skin and the flavor is quite amazing and is wonderful in my old fashioned pumpkin muffins, my favorite breakfast treat on the weekends.

Rouge Vif d'Etampes French Heirloom Pumpkin 

 

Although I am excited about the vegetable garden, I am even more so about the flower garden. I got THAT from my Daddy, who had the most wonderful dahlias and gladiolas and I remember him giving me, when I was just six years of age, daffodil bulbs to plant outside my playhouse. I remember him telling me, "Deer don't like these. You won't need a fence for your garden!" I want to plant hollyhocks....the old fashioned variety. I never see a hollyhock and fail to think of my Dad, his weather beaten face under that old disreputable hat and the smile on his face when tending his flowers.

  

This page will be devoted to my upcoming garden, which I get to start working on tomorrow, (YAYNESS!!!) and I will update regularly. Quite honestly? I. CANNOT. WAIT!