What it's all about

Ten years ago, my husband and I moved to our home in Weaverville, NC. Since then we have dug, hoed, tilled and cleared; creating flower and vegetable gardens. Like most things in life we have learned through trial and error; in fact, just two years ago we scrapped the whole thing and started over. So, through this process I have learned a few things about gardening organically. I would say that gardening is my meditation; cultivating, nurturing, and ultimately giving the end result up to the universe to decide its fate has been a great lesson for me to carry through out my life. My hope in writing this blog is to communicate with other gardeners, both novice and veteran, who share this same passion and love for farming. I hope for this to be a place where we can share knowledge and learn from each other. It is March in the south and all the seed catalogues have been put away, the days of dreaming and longing are over, it is time to garden!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Today, we tilled up our big beds and began soaking our sugar and snap peas. Tomorrow, I will cover the soaked seed in innoculant to increase their yield. I also started a tray of pepper and tomatoe seedlings. I find that they have a much better germination rate if I start them on a heating mat.
We also dug up our Heritage raspberries. I swear, everytime I plant something I wonder the next season, "What was I thinking, why would I think that was a good place to plant X or Y?" Moving raspberries is no treat, even with gloves my hands are full of tiny, hairsized prickers. The good news, my eight raspberry plants have put out millions of suckers in just one year so...raspberries for all.

5 comments:

  1. Mollie,
    Thanks for creating this blog! I've always loved seeing how healthy and beautiful your gardens are, and I'm looking forward to learning from you :) Can you send me some info about the innoculant you mentioned? I've never used it, but have heard it's great (what is it???)

    Thank you!!
    ~Metta

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  2. Hi Mollie,

    Ahh spring, so many gardening possibilities....I to just planted my peas, only this is the first time I did not soak them.... I know better but it was such a beautiful day.... we will see how germination is effected. I'm hoping that rain last night gave them the soaking they need. Because of my impatience I put the innocolant in the soil instead of right on the wet peas. have you ever done it that way? experiments with mother nature.

    I'm feeling on top of my game, with kale, broccoli, cabbage, chard, carrots, onions, potatoes, lettuce, beets, and calendula all in the ground. I love North Carolinas growing season, eat your heart out New England. I usually wait to plant calendula in May, but after watching how successfully it replanted itself and was flowering way into November I thought I'd give it a go, when do you usually start calendula?

    I'm so excited about your new blog.... and your raspberry bushes....

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  3. Metta,
    The innoculant is a bacteria that works with the legume to fix the nitrogen floating around in the air. It lets the peas be lazy and in turn, the pea gives the bacteria a place to live and be gooey and wet. Weird science fiction sort of stuff....but, it works.

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  4. Mindy...get the raspberries before they take over.

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  5. hey mo--

    it would be good to hear what the whole year's game plan is going to be: what all are you going to grow.

    if i had to pick 2 things, i'd go broccoli and onions (my favorites).

    do you grow those? are they a good choice?

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