It's been a while since I have taken the time to blog, as this has been an intense growing season and mostly all of my time has been spent working in or worrying about the gardens. You know the saying "when it rains, it pours"? Well, that has been the case thus far this year. We started our season with a bang . . . cool temps, drizzly rain and overcast skies, which led to some amazing root veggies and lots and lots of greens. This was following by continuous rains which brought on blight, flooded areas, weeds which couldn't be managed and lots of flea beetles. We then entered our garden one morning to the sound of loud buzzing which proved to be millions upon millions of Japanese beetles. I had never seen one before this day and to see them swarming everywhere eating everything . . . oh my gosh! I wanted to sit down and cry (and I think I did at one point). There really are no words for what I felt. It took us a few days to locate an organic source for eradicating these nasty beetles and while we were traveling to Fayetteville to pick-up the remedy, a wind storm hit and knocked over mostly every corn stalk which had just begun the tasseling process. We experienced a few good days of weather at which time we worked diligently, 12-16 hour days, to transplant growing items to higher ground, work on the beetle and blight issues, dig our way through the weed patches and begin again on replanting. As we really started seeing progress this week, we have again been hit by continuous rain and flooded fields and wind which tore plants right out of the ground.
As I begin this morning poking seeds back into the ground which are floating on puddles in the fields, salvaging plants which were uprooted during the storm and taking inventory, I will admit, this has been a tough growing season thus far, but I will not complain. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn better, more efficient ways to garden. I am thankful to have a strong back. I am thankful to wake each morning to the sound of birds chirping. I am thankful to have strong community support and fantastic farm friends. I am thankful to have lots and lots of seeds as my backup plan.
Today, I feel accomplished, knowing that though storms have and continue to hit the farm, I keep putting on my big girl panties and heading out to the fields day in and day out. I love gardening and feeding families. I love to taste the first sweet corn and perfectly ripened tomato. I love to see my children enjoying homemade pickles and veggie pizza. I love learning more and more about better ways to produce food. So today . . . . I am happy, thankful and grateful to Garden like a girl.
