Why are we doing this?
I ask myself this questions many times throughout the course of the year. And I pose it to my husband, who has even less background in this farming stuff than I do.
And yet, here we are. Again. And you know why? Because I want that damn tomato.
All I know about how to grow stuff is based on trial and error, and occasionally from what I read (and actually retain) from Mother Earth News, friends, and other random places. I don't do much more work than that, sadly, because that's about all I can manage most times with a busy life and ADD.
I sure don't make it easy for us. I am about as natural as you can get. My philosphy is typically "whatever God wants." And this year I meant it. We didn't use anything- I mean anything- aside from dirt and water. Put seed in soil. Water. Plant grows. Boom. Or...not boom.
I had a rough start to the gardening year and debated not doing a veggie garden; this was mostly because I just don't have the time to do it myself. My husband promised to be more involved this time, so I acquiesced and decided to grow 'his' tomatoes. We're both focused on wrapping up some big proffesional goals this summer, and neither of us really have the time to do a good job. But fine. Toamatoes for JP. Cucumbers for my daughter. This turned into...
The 3 Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), because I had been reading Braiding Sweetgrass, and if you read that part you can't NOT fall in love. Spaghetti squash for me. String beans for my sons. Pumpkins for my neices and nephews. Snap peas for me. Onions to make a point (I have a 0% success rate). And kale. And cabbage. And and and. And so on. And here we are, back to where I always am, with a too- much garden and a life with no time. But there was one thing I SWORE to that man I married that I would not be able to do, and that was weeding.
I did manage to come across (and remember!) something I saw about using organic straw as weed suppression. I've never really tried many things to supress weeds in the past, but spending hours outside in the evening with the mosquitos never really bothered me as much. Not now. Now I need help.
Luckily a local farm (and amazing CBD business- hey, Fiddlers Green!) was selling organic straw for a very affordable price. Yay for supporting local! I had no idea at the time that we would be encountering such high temps and drought-like conditions this summer, which is another reason this straw saved me- the thick layer helps retain moisture, so I had to do less watering during those extremely hot and dry weeks. Not to mention the straw will protect precious stopsoil from drying out, preserving benefical microorganism and enhacing soil health. And it will break down to add back to the soil. There are many benefits to this straw thing.
I have to say, I have had to do the least amount of weeding I have ever had to do in my life of gardening, which is 20+ years. There are the occasional ones coming through where Squawk, our renegade chicken who escapes EVERY confinement, has kicked back the straw, but overall it has been magically awesome. I will say, the seeds from the straw do germinate, but I find them easy to displace by just turning over the layer of straw and exposing the roots to the sun. And even with no fertilizer, no pesticide, no companion planting, no NOTHING, that I've never had such a sucessful crop of cucumbers or such happy plants overall. Now, the zukes and yellow squash were decimated early on by vine borers, but I usually get too many of those veggies, anyway. I also have never seen as many squash bugs in my LIFE, but I've been trying my best to go around and pull the eggs off the leaves. Actually, I just realized, I probably have been spending as much time checking for squash bugs as I might have been weeding...oh well. Still a win for the straw.
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