Eden It's Not...

Well, here it is! My garden! You can see the very annoying tiller in the background. In this picture I still hadn't planted my okra, cantaloupe, and purplehull peas. In the foreground next to the grass over on the right hand side of the picture you can see some of the rocks that still have to be removed. In fact, if you click on the picture you will probably be able to see LOTS of rocks that still have to be removed.

After I took this picture I finished tilling the last section (at the upper left hand section of the picture) and got my okra, cantaloupe and purplehulls planted. Then we tilled around everything to keep the weeds from taking over. I even hoed some of the places where I didn't feel safe taking that ornery tiller. As we finished up on Tuesday afternoon, I prayed to the Lord and told Him, "OK, you can let it rain now." Within seconds it was raining! What can I say? God likes me!

So now everything is in the ground.

Today I drove the stakes for tying up the tomato plants and put out some fertilizer around the tomatoes to prevent bloom-end rot. I also looked everything over. My okra is already coming up. I expect the purplehulls to follow any day now. I also noticed that something has been munching on my fordhook limas. I suppose that it is time to break out the pesticide. I'd love to be able to do this more organically, but I would need to do some research first and talk to some people who have done it before. This won't wait. Until I can do that, Sevin® dust will just have to do.

So far I am extremely pleased with the way things are turning out. Nearly everything that I have planted has come up. Most of the seed looks like it took.

My last gardening adventure was a complete bust. Hardly anything came up. I think the only thing that we got any produce from was our squash plants and they also died mysteriously - almost over night.

I anticipate much better results this time around. Of course, water will be a huge key in keeping our forward momentum. Hopefully the summer will be as mild as the spring has been. I don't look forward to the thought of many days like we had today. Mid-90s is too hot for my taste. I prefer things to stay below 85°.

The cool thing about this whole process has been the miracle of watching these seeds becoming plants. It is just awesome! It makes me want to check it out every day and see what the Lord has been up to. My garden isn't Eden, but it isn't bad for a good ol' boy's sophomore effort in the red, North Carolina clay.