Gardening: The Cycle. . . Does Not Begin Again

Hello, Gardeners.

Unfortunately for me this year, I will not be able to garden. Thankfully, this is due to a wonderful opportunity I am blessed to have, but it will be a little sad not to garden.

Herbs

Beans (Some herbs on left side), Also where I had my garlic

Tomatoes

Usually, right now, I would have started seeds, hoping for my little baby tomatoes and cucumbers and beans to grow big and strong and healthy.

Instead, however, I am enjoying the unusually warm weather, and beginning to smell spring in the air.

What are your favorite parts about spring?

Spruce Nogard

Gardening: Types of Gardeners

Greetings, Friends!

Today, I have wonderful news about my plants! They are flourishing! I have had 18 beans and two cucumbers so far. However, no tomatoes yet. Apparently, they are ginormous varieties, so it makes sense they haven't ripened yet.

I was planning to just give you a quick update on my plants, but then I got to thinking about the types of gardeners. There are three main types: the Perfect Gardener, the Careless Gardener, and the Happy Gardener.

1) The Perfect Gardener

The Perfect Gardener wants their garden to be perfect. Not just to look nice, but to look absolutely spotless. The minute it isn't perfect, they freak out, and try to make everything perfect again.

2) The Careless Gardener

The Careless Gardener plants their garden, and promptly forgets about it. These gardeners's plants usually end up dying.

3) The Happy Gardener

The Happy Gardener cares for their plants, and wants them to flourish and grow, but does not freak out if their garden is not absolutely perfect. However, they may get very worried if their garden is not doing well. :) Although this gardener aspires for their garden to be beautiful, they do not force it to become beautiful.

I am mostly the Happy Gardener. Sometimes, however, I know I am closer to the Perfect Gardener, because I stress out about the tiniest things in my garden. Usually, however, if I look them up, I find out what's normal and how to dispose of the non-normal things. About the types of gardeners, though, I feel like we all are gardeners, whether we grow plants or not. See, we are all gardeners in the giant garden of Life, and we all garden differently. I believe in life, though, there are more types of gardeners. :)

What type of gardener are you?

Spruce Nogard

Gardening: The Easy Way

Greetings, Gardeners and non-Gardeners alike!

Gardening seems to have more parallels to life every time I write a post. Maybe I should rename the "Gardening" section of my blog to "Life Lessons With Plants."

Anyways, in gardening, it is often tempting to take the easy way. You see the wonderful, giant tomato plants at the store, or even the four-inch tall ones and think: I love gardening, and that would be so nice, and they'd do so much better than if I started my own seeds indoors. . . 

But would they do better? Just like in life, how the "short cut" or the "easy way" seems like it would reap many more benefits and be so much faster, in the long run, it often isn't. Usually, taking the time to go the long route proves to have more benefits. For example, in

baking, if you get the box of cake mix, it tastes nice, but a cake made from scratch tastes way better.

Tomatoes work the same way. The plants from the store often are thin and weak. Tomatoes started

Tomato From Store-Circled

From Store: Bushy-- But many thin branches

from seed indoors often grow much stronger central branches, and become large, healthy, bushes, whereas the ones from the store tend to not grow nearly as well. At least, in my experience. :) I have heard some people not get good plants from starting seeds indoors without grow lights and heating mats, which are really expensive, but mine do just fine without either.

Take my plants for example. I bet my two front tomatoes will be about the same size as my tomato plants last year, but here is the tomato I got from the store.

Also planted from seed, but smaller

Planted from seed

 

















So, what decision will you make?

Spruce Nogard

Gardening: Small Start

Wonderful Weather, my Fine Friends!

Today, we will take another glimpse at my gardens, and if you want, you can share yours in the comments.

It is only the beginning of June, so where I live, plants are just getting started. I prefer to start my plants from seed, for various reasons. I'll have to write about that some other time. However, I do make exceptions, as most of my herbs I got as plants from the store.

My veggies, (particularly my tomatoes), so far, are very small. This is perfectly fine with me, however. As you can see, my tomatoes are two to three inches tall and look like they will never grow. They are off to a small start.

My tomatoes in proportion to the rest of the bed (circled)

(By the way the chicken wire is to keep animals out of my gardens.)

Like many things in life, when things start small, it's hard to trust that they will grow, becoming something bigger and better. Last year, when I first started gardening, my tomatoes started off the same size as the ones this year. It would have been easy for me to give up. After all, how could something that small ever produce something as big as a tomato?

Last year, though, we had about 400 tomatoes from five tomato plants. I started them all from seed.

Last Year's Tomatoes--in the same size bed

By the way, this picture was taken about half- to three quarters-of the way through the summer--the plants don't have any red tomatoes yet, but if you look closely, you can see very big green ones.

Anyways. . .

In today's age, we want to be able to predict everything. We order things online, asking: When will my sister's present arrive? When will my new book get here? And we get answers. Fourteen days. Five days. If you become a member, two days.

We plan everything, from what we're doing this summer to what we eat. But some things can't be planned. They're not predictable. They don't follow a pattern. Those things, though, are just as important in our lives.

So, how do you know the barely three-inch seedlings that haven't grown for two weeks will survive?

You don't.

Sometimes, you just have to trust.

Spruce Nogard

Recipes: Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

Hello, Pie-Lovers!


Here is a recipe for a simpler version of strawberry-rhubarb pie. We always used to have strawberry-rhubarb pie when I was young, and it is one of my favorites. Here is a recipe from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/12612/rhubarb-and-strawberry-pie/

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 pound fresh rhubarb, chopped
2 pints fresh strawberries
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
2 tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, mix flour and sugar. Add strawberries and chopped rhubarb. Toss with sugar and flour and let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Pour filling into pie crust. Dot top with butter, and cover with top crust. Seal edges of top and bottom crust with water.
4. Apply yolk to top of pie, using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut small holes in top to let steam escape.
5. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C), for 35 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly and brown. Cool on rack.

 Spruce Nogard

 

Attributions:

https://pixabay.com/en/strawberries-red-fruit-99551/ 

https://pixabay.com/en/rhubarb-farmers-local-market-market-1422546/ 

Gardening: Almost Time to Plant!

Hello, Gnomes.

Today is the first gardening post. Here are pictures of my indoor seedlings. I have garlic and onions outside already.

 I am planting two types of tomatoes: Amana Orange and Cherokee Purple. I haven't done them before, so I will see how it goes!

I also planted cucumbers (not shown) and some herbs.

What have you done/What are you going to do for gardening? Do you all like gardening?

Happy seedling transporting, Friends!

Spruce Nogard