Catching up

I'm not sure it is a good idea to plant a huge garden and leave it for over two weeks mid summer.  I thought I'd get caught up on it as soon as we returned from our trip but there was a lot of laundry to catch up on and then the stomach flu hit and moved through us one person and one day at a time.  So the laundry grew faster than I could tackle it, as did the weeds (which were already plentiful and very high).

My sister Mary suggested a little weeding party so we geared up for it in boots, overalls, tractor supply shirts and gloves.  We use to run together in high school and college and in those days we'd gear up in baggy t-shirts and old running shoes, it felt like old times there in the garden sweating along side each other, talking, pacing each other, laughing and at times almost crying.  I was the one who was almost crying because I was overwhelmed, not too long into it the weeding party turned more into a pity party.  But again, just like old times Mary was by my side encouraging me, "come on Al, just 1/2 mile more", "come on Al, just finish the row of beets". I was cursing those weeds all the while and Mary admitted to feeling the same way about neglected dirty dishes and paper work, that made me feel better.    

Here is only a tiny portion of our work.



Mary is a natural in the garden, she combed through all the cabbages till it looked tidier than a flower bed.  That was enough to keep me going, maybe not as focused as Mary but I kept going.  And it was a sweaty muscle aching workout that us sisters shared.

After our wedding workout we feasted on a berry/beet/kale/carrot smoothie and prepared the rest of the vegetables for roasting.  So I can't complain, the garden is certainly producing more than just weeds!

Not all my visitors are as encouraging as Mary though, my mom simply said, "oh you don't have time for this."  And there is one neighbor who knows just the wrong thing to say at the height of noon day sun, but I don't need to mention that here.

As for Paul and the kids, they have a lot more enthusiasm now that we are bringing in daily harvests.  Still, it takes a lot of energy to keep children going in an overgrown garden.  The goat kids on the other hand take to it like trick or treating.  Here they are barely fenced in to the area that was suppose to be our strawberry patch, I love that they love those weeds!

This is Yagi assisting in some really tall lambs quarter.

And since Maryanna likes to be in charge the job of garden goat herder serves us all, at least those little kids know who's boss.  

Here's what was suppose to be the sunflower house.  The back and sides are barely in reach of the sprinklers so they are not growing evenly, and I think some birds got to the corners. Clara said "that's okay the sunflower house did not work, we can just make a weed house this year because we already have so many tall weeds everywhere."  Peter is still very impressed with the height that some of the sunflowers are gaining, "they are even way taller than Daddy!" he observed.  And I answered "yes, we are all in over our heads in this garden".

Not sure we'll ever "catch up" on this year's garden, but I cannot doubt we are making huge strides along the learning curve.