Willingly Working with My Hands

 Sunday was a day of working with my hands...I was gardening nearly all day long--

did I mention it was 90+ degrees???!!

But I kept thinking about how much my labor was going to produce rich yummy things for my family a few weeks and months down the road, so I was willingly and eager to do it! Besides, there is something so satisfying about looking at it when you are all done!

If you remember from previous postings I mentioned how this year we are using a covering principle (see www.backtoeden.com) as well as non-GMO, open pollination heirloom seeds for all our vegetables and herbs.

Here are some pictures of how our garden is looking thus far...

We are in drought conditions right now and my husband says we have the best looking potatoes of all the neighboring farms or any others that he sees...everyone else is complaining about how their crops are dying.
It's totally due to the hay covering--it's keeping all the moisture in the soil!

Our peas and bean plants are growing so well! Some are even getting blossoms on them already. I chose varieties that were smaller so they didn't need a lot of room. I planted these bean seeds and peas the same day I planted the seeds you will see below in my Father-in-Law's garden...

What?? You can't see them very well? Exactly! That's the difference having the covering makes to keep the water in the soil. The plants actually...GROW! This uncovered dirt is like trying to dig in cement! Our dirt is so moist under its covering of hay that it's a deep dark rich brown! Tons of bugs and worm! This dirt? I've YET to see a worm or any bugs besides ants.

What I haven't taken a picture of are the five watermelon and three cucumber hills as well as the tomato plant seedlings I planted on Sunday...which is a shame because we had a trespasser on Sunday night who walked on 3 of my 5 watermelon hills and 2 of my 3 cucumber hills...smashing them flat--scattering the seeds everywhere! I know it was a human critter because the shoe print was clear and there were NO animal tracks anywhere! This garden is right below the railroad and we get a lot of people who walk up and down it. So it's not uncommon...and there have been robberies occurring lately...so maybe my watermelon hills and this wet (from the rain) garden dirt foiled a robbery?! LOL!

I am eager to harvest our firstfruits...we have decided to give them to an elderly couple who is unable to have a garden for the first time in their lives due to health. We rent pasture from them so we visit regularly. We took them some extra cabbage and a big crate of new potatoes that we bought from another farmer and they were just tickled to death! I plan on sharing any abundance of our garden with them even later in the season.

So that is how are garden is doing right now...

"Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." Genesis 2:15

"For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." Isaiah 61:11

"Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to the goodness of the LORD--For wheat and new wine and oil, For the young of the flock and the herd; Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all." Jeremiah 31:12

ps. In homeschooling news, we are back in 1/2 days for school and this week we are studying Cain and Abel as our main lesson!