5th week of June 2009
This year my goal was to have all the tomatoes staked and tied up by the first of July. I actually did get everything up with at least one strand of twine and will only have to add a little more later as the youngest ones grow. I have a dozen or so of the square cages which are very nice but not economically feasible for 80 plants so most of my tomato system is done with metal T posts, smaller fiberglass posts and twine running along them to hold the plants up. Now I need to start pruning off some of the tomato suckers, a task I always intend to do but often gets neglected. Another garden maintenance task happening this time of year is potato hilling. I am thankful my teenage son is tackling that job a few rows every morning. Now we just need to figure out how to handle all the potato bugs... We're also keeping an eye out for squash bugs, cucumber beetles and all those other garden nasties. Someday when our soil is all marvelously balanced and our crops in peak health we hope to not have to deal with all those wonderful critters. The theory goes that insects and disease are designed to "clean up" the weak and sick plants and leave the healthy ones alone.
The flowers are also coming into their glory. Today my daughter and I picked several buckets of flowers to make bouquets for a fundraiser. They ended up a very colorful mix of sunflowers, zinnias, drumstick allium, gooseneck, bee balm, larkspur and more. Working with all that color is such a joy and I pray the bouquets will go on to bless the recipients. We are always looking for good excuses to make more bouquets. The children are also having fun making flower dolls again. As a child I remember my grandma teaching us to make hollyhock dolls and now we've expanded to include calendula, bachelor buttons, echinacea, poppies and more in these quaint play things. Even the little boys have fun creating them and giving them away to visitors who stop by the farm. On July 11 we'll be taking buckets of flowers for doing flower dolls as a children's activity at Lehmans store though sometimes it's the older ladies who enjoy this craft the most for nostalgic reasons.
Our latest birthday supper was for my husband. We ate outdoors and had meatballs made with our grass fed hamburger, the first red potatoes and peas fresh from the shell. After supper we all spent time in the garden weeding and then ended the evening with a freezer of hand cranked raspberry ice-cream. It was incredibly tasty and we ate it down to the last drop while it gradually got dark with fireflies blinking and bats flying overhead. We love to celebrate special occasions with good food and family.
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