August Garden - Dedicated to Chipmunks

Imagine you are a tiny animal . . .  in a Great Lakes summer. The path from your burrow is a wild colorful canopy of Nasturtium stems and aggressive Morning Glory vines. In this brilliant jungle the tantalizing fragrances of thyme and basil, rosemary and mint spin into morning mists filling your tiny but powerful lungs. Your home paradise is my herb garden.

Our other garden, is void of small mammals. Only we large hopeful humans come to observe and pamper and gather the fruits from struggling vegetable vines for our own sustenance.

These two gardens and frequent trips to the weekly farmer’s market have been the source of steady day by day preservation of food. We have stored in dozens of jars fruits from trees and bushes along Michigan’s third coast, amazing blueberries, peaches, apricots, combining strawberries and tangy rhubarb. Most have jelled, though the magic of heated fruit and sugar still eludes me and I am forced to label many of these special flavors as “sauce”.

Tomatoes, however . . . Ah tomatoes. We wait all summer for August when solid brilliant globes of red and gold fill baskets then jars of soups, juice, pasta sauce. With our trusty Victorio bound to the kitchen counter we team up to begin quartering, grinding, and filling a very large steel bowl with thick seedless tomato juice. Of course we cannot go through this process without our mouths watering and begging for juicy pieces that dribble down chins and arms. My mouth is watering now just telling you about this wonder of the earth.

Now go, make yourself a great tomato sandwich with all the supporting actors – mayonnaise, lettuce, cheese. Go and take in these pleasures of our world.

While you enjoy these gifts you may want to take a look at the ebook , A Homestead Decade -How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life, Amazon kindle books 2.99

Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for sharing this Crunchy Granola blog with friends.

love, Helene

It takes a Community . . . .

June 16 the
beans are up

            This year we are excited to cultivate not one but three small gardens, gardens that day by day manage to erase tensions with the beauty of natural designs. The rough neck garden between our back deck and the parking lot is designated as the Herb Garden.

            The other two plots are part of an unexpected Community Garden for the semi urban residents in our condos and apartments.  

            To get to our new garden spot we walk a half a mile past a small but bountiful wild field along the lake shore before spotting 18 boxed gardens now in full bloom. They are an inviting sight on an excellent piece of land between the apartment buildings and the community club house pool.

            This community garden is the flowering idea of local residents in the condos who sometime last fall began the inquiry with associations in the region. Working through hurdles of opinions and support the agreed section was plotted out in May.

July 7 lookin good

            Greg Waldie and Jerry Flores acquired the lumber and within a full day had prepared 18 4x8 raised garden boxes. A rich mix of soil was distributed in each plot.

First Harvest from the
Waldie garden!

            Greg arranged for watering through the adjacent club house outdoor hose, a unique gate at each end of the garden section allows gardeners to get in while discouraging other eager munchers. Various gardeners share watering cycle duty. Then the planting began. We are #8 and #2. All 18 are now in bloom as more folks saw the potential for joy watching their own garden in the foreground of a luscious lakeside sunset. Thanks to Greg and Jerry, Diane and others for this gift.

             

            Meanwhile back to the little herb garden. We struggle with the soil on this little plot that suffers from the draining mountain of winter snow and ice chemicals left from parking lot clearings. This year we focused on herbs and hardies – basil, parsley, thyme, and summer savory. We also discovered an edible flowering beauty – nasturtiums! (no, haven’t eaten one yet). The volunteers do their thing with a little guidance: mint MINT, dill, ivy and those bossy morning glories.

            And so the dance with soil and dreams continues in this lovely experience called gardening.

            This is our first experience gardening with other people. The plan here is simple, each person manages their own section, with cooperation on watering and using gates. The Crunchy Granola book describes a far different experience in our first year of gardening - starting with an unmanageable acre. We were such novices. I hope you may check out the e-book on Amazon A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life.  2.99, Sample free. Enjoy past blogs below.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Affectionately, Helene

Comfort for the Bruised Soul

Garden dreaming....

Take a breath. Look about. It is only a little 4’x 8’ section of dirt framed by untreated 2 by10s. Just dirt, well, good dirt mixed with compost and commercial garden soil. It still seems daunting to begin again after a soul bruising winter. Take a breath. Here we go.

Three tomato plants, one red pepper plant, a hill of pickling cucumbers, two rows of 35 bean seeds, two dinosaur kale plants and one green/blue eggplant, (the blossoms of eggplant are so beautiful!)

   

There lies hope. Hope that the summer will fill the box with texture and color and smells and hidden secrets of blossoms to fruit. I stand for a moment, a little sad that the time to plant was so short. And so it begins again – The Garden.

This is the new garden, a place to dig.
A place to plant, a place to care.
I'll keep you posted on this project.

Thank you for visiting. It is good to be back. Please check A Homestead Decade, How Crunchy Granola Changed My Life  an Amazon Kindle e-book. Lots of fun to read. Cheap.

Enjoy summer, Helene