January 5, 2018
This new year started out with the spectacular, Super Wolf Moon.
Last year at this time, I had just arrived in Cleveland to stay for six weeks with my sister as she dealt with her newly diagnosed cancer. I am pleased to be able to report that after less than twelve months of excellent care by the Seidman Cancer Center, she is free of all cancer and is now living her life pretty much the way she had been, prior to the highly unpleasant episode.
The trip had prevented me from doing the usual things that one does in January and February to prepare for the next cycle of growth in the garden. Once I had returned to my home in Minnesota, my late plotting and planning began. I went through all my old seeds, packets that had been collected and unused for too many years. What did I think I wanted to grow, and how much? Would I be planting for daily eating or for putting-up and storing as well? What seeds should I plant indoors in advance of the last frost date, and how early did they need to be planted? I placed a nice big order with Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, including a number of seeds that were not likely to get planted that season, just because I couldn’t resist.
There was the plotting of the garden beds. The previous autumn, my husband and I had dug up another patch of lawn to put to vegetable growing. It was still in need of the arranging and placing of my pseudo-square-foot-garden, semi-raised beds. On paper, I tried to envision how many beds would go into the new section.
Once I’d figured out how many beds I would have in total, it was time to determine which items were to be grown in which beds. Unfortunately, most parts of my vegetable garden receive a fair bit of shade at some point during the summer days, so there was that to keep under consideration.
The more confusing aspect was to attempt to plot out three years in a row, using a three-year-crop-rotation plan while also figuring which plants were best companions with one another. All the while trying to assure that light requirements were met for each grouping. It was a dizzying several days, but eventually it seemed to be under control. One thing I discovered in the planning was that there still would not be enough room for everything I wanted to grow. I would have to restrain myself.
When my most beautiful and beloved Sugar Maple had been removed the previous September, I had asked the tree trimmers to please leave the large limbs and cut them into approximately six and three foot sections. When the ground had thawed, I pains-takingly placed the maple logs in a workable configuration, then within the confines of the new beds, forked up the existing soil, added new top soil and what was left of our big sheep-poo haul from two years prior.
Seeds were planted, seedlings transplanted, and marsh hay from the garden center was spread around to keep the moisture in and the weeds down. Things began to grow and for once I had a few handfuls of pea pods to add to salads. As usual, some things did better than others. I tried to analyze what possibly caused one thing to do poorly and another to thrive.
I had promised myself to take better notes last year than I’d managed in the past. What was planted, where and when. When things popped out of the ground and when they bore fruit and ripened. How the light and shadows played out in each section throughout the days and the season. Everything was coming along fairly well.
Then my husband fell fifteen feet out of a tree. We won’t talk about why he was up there, that would be a story for another blog, one about miracles. Everything changed in an instant, but I’m so pleased to say that, though he crushed his spine and suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury, he is doing amazingly well and has in fact been clearing light snow from the driveway. It truly is a miracle.
In the meantime, the garden took a back seat. There was not much of a harvest and the only notes I kept for months were a daily diary on the Hubster’s condition. Now that he is up and walking and on dish-duty, I have been able to catch up on some things. At long last, all the odd seeds from the 2017 garden, hanging out at the end of the kitchen counter have been separated, packaged, labeled and put away. The pumpkin has been peeled, cubed and frozen, with some seeds tucked away while the rest wait to dry a bit before becoming pepitas.
And now it is time to begin the whole cycle again. I will try not to look at any seed catalogues, as there are plenty of seeds to work with already here. I will not need to plan for, nor build any new beds. Fortunately, I was able late last fall, to clean up and cover all the beds to prevent disease and spring weeds, so once it is time, planting should be fairly easy, requiring just a loosening of the soil with the garden fork and a hoe. I will plot everything out early and be ready to plant seeds indoors within the proper time parameters and under the new light set-up in the basement.
It is a glorious time to think about new beginnings.
Happy New Year and Happy Gardening!
Picking Peas 