Oh, the garden! As I write this now, a very gentle but seemingly long-lasting rain is falling. Just the very thing our garden needs - I couldn't be more happy to spend the day inside knowing just what good work the rain is doing out there. Nearly everything is in the ground now, though there are still some tomatoes and the squash to put in and a few more flowers, and the reorder of strawberries. Wait, what am I talking about? It's not all nearly in the ground - there's still plenty to do. And even when that is all done, surely I'll find room to tuck something new here or there, I always do.
We decided to nearly double the garden this year. Or, rather...it just happened, which is a "decision" of a kind, right? A mild fall season meant that I really was able to fully put the 'garden to bed' last year, which made the start of this year so much easier (just pull back the mulch, and voila!). The addition of raised beds last year helped enormously too - it's just easier to get started up again in the spring. And of course, we could use the food. We never make it as far as I hope with the things we love most of all, and so I'm planting more this year. More of the things we love and eat lots of and that store well. Beets, carrots, potatoes, cabbage. It's tricky to photograph the sprawling, spreading garden as it is now. There is this main garden, then behind it another fenced in area nearly the same size, which is where we have potatoes, corn and pumpkins. And then outside of that - in the orchard area - is the strawberry bed. I think I might need a drone camera to get it all this year (I'm kidding. I don't want a drone camera). What I'll really need, though, is a proper root cellar or solution of some kind to our winter food storage. We've had trouble with our cellar getting the humidity just right for storing, so we'll need to come up with something by the end of the summer to store all this extra food we're growing. Stay tuned for that project!
For something that has been occupying so much of my time and attention in recent months, I haven't shared much of the garden with you yet this year! That's mostly because I've been dreaming up a different way to share the garden love. After several years of weekly garden updates, I'd love to mix it up a little this year. I want to continue sharing garden updates from time to time, and I'd really love to visit your garden! Or rather...host a tour of yours right here to share with all. Because surely I'm not the only one who loves peeking inside other gardens - those near and far, small and large, different and similar to my own. I love seeing what people are using for mulch, or what grows well in different parts of the world, and hearing about what we all love/don't love about growing food. And so ... garden tours here on SouleMama! Yes? It sounds fun to me, and I hope you'll be game to join in. If you have a garden you'd like to share, be in touch and I'll send you all the details.
Cheers, to the work and play of the garden! Wishing you all a little bit of time playing in the dirt this weekend.
