Harvesting and Falling

Shouldn’t that title be harvesting IN the fall? Yes. And it would be if I weren’t the gardener! 

The good news is, I harvested 23 bush beans on Thursday! I wasn’t sure they were ready and how exactly to go about it, so a little reading from a few trusted sources on the web and to harvesting I went! Apparently the BEST time to harvest is while the dew is still on the plants. And being that I had to go to work, I obviously had to play in the garden before getting ready for work. So, crack of dawn it was. 

 If you haven’t checked lately, ‘crack of dawn’ is still pretty dark. Add that to the fact that I’d moved bins around and made for very little room on the sidewalk to the side of the garden: you can almost see the recipe for disaster. I harvested the beans - 23 of ‘em remember? - and was coming out of the garden, with my phone as a flashlight, and my coffee cup (why? crack of dawn!), and the basket with my 23 beans, onto the sidewalk and was trying to thread my way between the planter (just off the sidewalk) and the 103 qt bins that was taking up most of the sidewalk. Long story short, I fell. There’s the ‘Fall” part.

Didn’t do too much damage; “too much” is the operative phrase. I accidentally trimmed the green pepper plant which had a main “trunk” but has a side stem that has two peppers growing on it. So thankful that the taller part of the plant  - that I grabbed in desperation to not fall - didn’t have the peppers on it! I ended up on the sidewalk between the bins and the planter on my left side/back. Back of my thigh caught the bins, cracked the corners of two bins and got a couple of nice bruises to “mark” the event. So I’m a little sore and the bins are cracked, but that’s why they make ibuprofen and duct tape.

So, I harvested and I fell. Maybe next time I can “just” harvest. 

The Beginning

" How did I decide to start a garden?" I was asked the other day. To be honest, I'm not sure I know!

I started out late last summer with a couple of veggie plants (tomatoes and green peppers) from the "depot of homes". We got a few tomatoes and a couple of peppers off those plants, but because I put them in the logical place aesthetically, they burned up (mostly) as they faced the west and bore the brunt of the sun in the hottest part of the day. So that wasn't really a great, awe-inspiring event...even though the herbs that I bought along with the toms and peppers did well and provided lots of flavor in the kitchen.

The next major thing that came along was the great quarantine of 2020; aka COVID-19. Shortly after we all came home to work, I was laid off. You might think that that was the impetus for starting the garden. Nope, it wasn't. However, the team I was on at work did a few after-work hours (for those still working) zoom calls together - mostly because we missed each other! And lo and behold, several of my former co-workers have some kind of gardening going on at home! One is a major gardener and thus I am bowing deeply to Jessica & Patrick! But that still wasn't enough to get me going.

In April this year, the day before I was laid off from work, the fam went for a bike ride. My husband took a tumble due to a bike malfunction and after the hospital stays, we spent the next 3.5 months at doctor's appointments, doling out meds, and concussion, cognitive and physical therapy sessions. He's all good now... went back to work (remotely, still COVID-affected) full time in early July - thank you Lord Jesus!

So, was THAT enough to drive me outside to dig up a part of the lawn? Apparently it was. At least at the end of the bike wreck fiasco... I needed some sanity, downtime, time away from looking for a job 8 hours a day with little to no responses. A little refreshment for my mind, body, and soul.

My brilliant daughter determined the right spot for the garden (the north side of the house with shade trees blocking the afternoon sun in the west; and it still manages to get about 6 hours of sun every day). But finding the spot was just the beginning. Dig up the grass (and weeds) first - which took DAYS and lots of ibuprofen, KT tape, and ice for my shovel kicking knee - you know, the knee on the leg you kick the back of the shovel into the ground with? Yeah, it was screaming at the end of each day. But as progress was made, I was encouraged to keep going.

There's lots more to come...stay tuned, I'll try and get you caught up on what's happened in the garden since July.

~Farmer J