SPRING  has  SPRUNG . . .

Well, not quite.  It is still nippy in the early mornings here on the edge of the Blue Ridge, but the days are beautiful.  Let’s hope it will last and we have seen the last of this “coldest, wettest” winter on record.  My thoughts turn to spring, wonderfully warm days,

. . . and vegetable gardens.

Visions of summers past!

When I put in my spring garden, I feel like I connect with my ancestors who were mostly farmers.  But whether they farmed or not, surely they put in their “kitchen garden.”  This is what they ate out of and preserved to carry them through the winter.  Their life and health depended on this garden.  The women usually were in charge here along with any children old enough to help.  Older boys had to help their father, working the farm, growing the grain to feed the animals, growing the corn and wheat for the bread they ate, growing the cash crop which they sold for money to buy the things they couldn’t grow like coffee and sugar.

This would not be the small neatly squared “home” gardens we are used to seeing; it would be a plot of land like a small farm in itself.  There would be arbors with apples and pears and grapes.  There would be nut trees with walnuts and pecans.

I can’t imagine being in charge of all this, along with everything else the woman had to do.  I am intimidated by the very small plot I have.  Bear in mind, I live in a small patio home in town!  Here I don’t “farm”  -  I “dabble”  I suppose you could call it.  When I moved here, the lady before me had a large terraced flower box in the back yard.  It has three terraces, each box about 8 inches below the level of the higher one.  It is approximately 10 feet by 12 feet over all, and gives me about 100 square feet of space.  When I first looked at it, I saw VEGETABLES!  This small space compels me to do what is called “raised intensive gardening.”  I don’t have long rows, I have tightly filled squares.  Putting plants so close together, you must give them really good soil and feed them well.

 

The “back forty” from a distance

 In addition to my “box” (which my sister calls the back forty,)  I am blessed with a huge back deck with a lattice railing around it.  I can accommodate at least 50 medium to large (some very large) pots here.  That’s another 50 square feet.  I fill the corners, stack them on little tables, create different levels, and generally arrange attractive groupings all along the railing and steps.  I wind squash and cucumber vines through the lattice, and have little French melons hanging there.

                                                                                                   French Charantais Melon                     

                                           

I garden organically, using no chemical fertilizers or insect controls.  Everything is natural.  I mix in a lot of mushroom compost and cow manure and I make my own bug sprays.  People might say that this is not necessary, but I know vegetables grown this way are better.  My husband could not eat commercially grown cucumbers (saturated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides) from the supermarket, but he could eat mine!  I think my ancestors would have farmed this way – they only had natural resources.  But I am glad I can buy my MOO COW poop in nice non-smelly pasteurized bags instead of having to shovel it out from under the animals!

Winter collards in pot

I learned how to garden organically many years ago, in Florida.  My husband’s uncle who was into “mega” farming hundreds of acres got the biggest laugh when I told him how I had enough collards to feed the two of us for many months from three magnificent plants I grew in pots on my patio.  He could not relate to this.  But it works.

I hardly buy any vegetables from the store from April through December except for corn, potatoes, and carrots which take up more room than I can give them.  I usually take the last of my patio tomatoes to my sister’s when I go for Christmas.  In my pots I have cucumbers, squash (yellow and green,) eggplants, bell peppers, hot peppers, banana peppers, collards, kale, beautiful French Charantais melons, and many small size and patio tomatoes.  Growing in all kinds of containers, hanging baskets, and planter boxes are romaine, and green scallions, and many varieties and colors of lettuce. 

                                                                                  Winter garden in pots on deck

 

In the late fall I put in a winter garden of collards, kale, onions and cabbage.  They grow well during the whole winter, even with 12 inches of snow now and then.  Nothing’s prettier than green scallions peeking through the snow.

In summer in the “back forty” I have bush green beans, bush lima beans, mustard greens, turnip greens, and 5 large size tomatoes, blackeyed peas, boc choi, rutabagas, and sometimes broccoli and arugala.  Scallions and radishes are slipped in wherever there is a tiny space.

The “back forty!” up close

Tucked in near my back door there is a small wrought-iron arbor over the walkway which will support pole beans and patio tomatoes, and there will be okra plants somewhere when it is hot enough.

         Garden planting chart

I made my “planting chart” back in February, but I am now ready to begin.  You shouldn’t put in transplants in this area until after April 15^th. There may be frost yet.  But I couldn’t wait and have started already with spinach, lots of lettuce, and some boc choi.  I grouped them all together on the deck right now just outside my back door because I have to cover them on cold nights, but I don't mind that.  I still have green onions, a little kale and collards from the winter, and also cabbage heads forming even though it was such a cold winter. 

My deck in full summer finery

I know my ancestors would also laugh at my efforts.  It seems so puny in comparison to what they did – and they did it out of

necessity! 

Surveying my little domain

But in the summer, when I sit in my comfortable deck chair under my umbrella, drinking my morning coffee, surrounded by all the beautiful plants hanging heavy with food, I look out toward my overflowing box (the back forty!), surveying my little domain, with the humming birds whizzing at my feeder, and I am very happy with my work, and I hope they can give me credit for my little bit.  

In this way, I think, I honor them.

My humming bird feeder

Plant a tomato and honor your ancestors