One of the reasons people choose to live in a rural area is to grow their own food. We have had many years with gardens since we built this place in 1999, but we’ve also had years where we didn’t have a garden. The years I worked a lot and the years we operated Adventure Mendota — we were just too busy.

Even on those busy years, however, we could still grow a few things around the house. I grow Romaine lettuce in flower pots. We cut it off and eat it and it grows back and we do it all again — this works for quite a while!

Now is a perfect time to return to having a garden. I am working far less, and Mendota, Virginia has a wonderful climate for growing things. Grocery prices are high, and there is a sense of uneasiness in many parts of the world. Having a garden gives us an opportunity to push back on those high prices; and, for me, a sense of food security. My garden, if all goes well, will yield a freezer filled with corn and sweet peppers, many jars of spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, tomato juice, salsa, relish, pickles and so forth. I’m still hunting for that wonderful vegetable soup recipe that doesn’t taste “canny.”

One thing we’ve always been challenged with is how to keep tomatoes from becoming a total train wreck in our garden. I see perfectly tied tomato plants all the way to Hiltons, and then there has been ours–a tangled mess. We are trying to do better this year. I watched a You Tube video called the “Florida Weave Method” of stringing tomatoes. It involves nylon string. It’s what you see above — while it’s not as exact as the You Tube video, it seems to be working. They’ll grow taller, and I’ll add more string. I also have to do some pruning of the lower branches of the tomato plant. I’m watching a You Tube video tonight on how to do that. Fact: A garden is a place one can always learn.

It has been really rainy and we’ve had a lot of weeds. I tried to hoe and keep up, but it was very difficult. Mike came to the rescue with a little mini cultivator which left things looking nice.

We were so happy that the corn germinated. Some years we’ve had problems with this, and then other years, the corn germinated and the crows grabbed the tiny seedlings to eat what remained of the seed. In the picture below, we have two rows planted two weeks ago–that’s the corn you can see– and two rows planted just four days ago–you have to look closer to see those. Beside those rows, there is a row of tiny seedlings of zinnia flowers that are coming up. They’re not visible in this picture.

My friend says that if you don’t have half-runner green beans, you don’t have green beans. We planted Mountaineer half runners as well as Rattlesnake pole beans. The Rattlesnakes get their name from the way they curve and climb. Mike placed sections of wire fencing called “hog fence panels” which are 4′ x 8′ from Rural King to give them a place to climb. With hog fence panels, the squares are smaller at the bottom than at the top. We accidentally put some of them upside down, but no matter, we have no hogs.

I’ll be picking Japanese beetles off those beans soon. I hate those little creatures.

We also have cucumbers coming up. They were planted very late but they have made their appearance and will grow fast.

I planted green peppers close to the house because we use so many. I’m now second guessing this decision. I’ve got them in a Tartar metal thing and in whiskey barrels. I had thought about planting crookneck squash in the whiskey barrels but the seeds didn’t seem to germinate. So…I planted these peppers and all of a sudden, squash popped up. I’m not sure how this will work out. I placed an old tomato cage for the squash to grow up vs. out. We’ll have to see how this works out.

And I have them in this Tartar thing I got at Lowes. These Tartar raised beds were not cheap, and I’m disappointed with myself for getting them. My green peppers have something eating at them and I’ve never had this before. Also, they are not as robust looking at what I’m used to. I’m blaming the galvanized raised beds. This could potentially be a big mistake as we eat a lot of these peppers. I freeze enough to have peppers each week of the year. The lower shelf of my upright freezer is typically full of packs of frozen green peppers as we approach fall.

Over at the barn, we’ll use more hog fencing when the gourd seedlings get larger and start to climb. I use the gourds for fall decorations.

Here’s a picture from years back where I’ve enjoyed my gourds…

I keep them until Christmas and spray paint them gold. Here’s a version of that..

But for now…there is no gourds. Just a tiny seedling that I have big dreams for.

Gardens, while practical, are for dreamers. We dream about what we’ll plant in the winter. We dream about what we’ll harvest while the garden is growing. We think about eating what we’ve grown.

And it all starts with dirt.

Thank you for reading. I used to keep this blog current and had so many followers and then I stopped. You know how that it–life gets in the way. I decided to start again and just keep it my little secret until someone finds it. If you found it, please comment and let me know.