GRANDPA’S GARDEN

Continued from "Human Interest, Composting"
This is a follow-up to the question:
"What are the benefits of composting?"
 

While walking through our garden my granddaughter was somewhat skeptical when I told her about some interactions and experiences I had while tending to my plants.

I had figured out a long time ago that it is mainly up to the school system to educate children about the scholar stuff, and it was my job to teach them about the worldly stuff, like the great outdoors which involved things like gardening, camping, fishing, landscaping, mushrooming, how to properly spit (their mom loved that one), being aware of your surroundings, safety, let someone else taste it first, birds, slugs, trees, flowers, bee’s, composting, worms, fruit trees etc…

Oh yah….. best of all is how to have fun, and the importance of a having a good sense of humor.

So with that said and being the good grandpa that I am, I decided to back up my stories with some pictures.

Before getting started a helpful grandpa hint for the garden:
Put small stakes at the end of each row you plant for two reasons:

1. The stakes identify each vegetable, especially when they are initially planted.

2. The stakes help me keep from damaging the vegetables as I drag the hose through the garden



My granddaughter is an eight year old Quest student with a learning capability that is exceptional. Sometimes she is to smart for her britches which can make life very interesting and somewhat of a challenge for me. 

 

She has a computer and will research things to back me up as well as to challenge me. I would have to say this is one of my ways to bond with my grandchildren and to help in their education. Education is great, but when you combine that with common sense and survival skills you have a good chance of getting to a ripe old age, like grandpa.
 

My granddaughter did not believe me when I told her that when you walk through the garden you need to have a watering can or a little bit of compost or fertilizer with you to ensure you get back out of the garden without upsetting the vegetable plants. If a garden is not properly cared for it is “just like you when you miss a meal or don’t get a treat”. You get emotional, irritable and cranky. I told her that if they don’t get enough water they will gently wrap there vines around your leg to get your attention. I told her that she could break away and walk out of the garden but that this would be very upsetting to the plants.

She did not believe me when I told my grandchildren about how my zucchini plants get all excited when I walk through the garden, and how they will actually grow just from getting excited with anticipation of getting some more water or fertilizer.



 

My grandchildren did not believe me even after I showed them the pictures.

I also told them that the garden will only react to me just like that talking horse that was on television (Mr. Ed) who could talk, but only with his owner.

Right, like they believed that one too.
 

Did you know that tomatoes were considered poison for over 400 years?

During the 1500’s those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous


Tidbit of information:
Tomato is a Fruit not a vegetable.
 

After a show and tell walk through the garden with my grandchildren and just getting done explaining the difference between the female and male flowers to my granddaughter I decided it might be safe to ask the Birds and the Bees question.

So...How do the flowers produce baby vegetables?
See below for the answer...

 

Her answer was:
Butterflies pollinate the flowers!

I don’t know why she said butterflies except that she loves them. Whew! This, to me, was beautiful as well as an acceptable answer for a child.

This bee was caught in the center
of a male flower snoozing!
 

He worked so hard that he was totally covered with pollen. When he flies to the female flower he will carry the pollen to the female flower. This is one way vegetables are pollinated

Notice the baby pumpkin on bottom of the female flower starting to grow?




Other Grandpa hints & suggestions:
After you get your pumpkins started on each plant you need to remove all the other flowers and some of the excessive vines within reason to help promote growth of the pumpkin you plan to keep.


I am going to plant two crops about 2-3 weeks apart next year to see if I can slow down the production a little. Too many vegetables all at one time is what I am trying to work through and prevent. I will call this my, space and time production


Other garden pictures: Pumpkins, cucumbers, broccoli, tomato, zucchini and yellow squash plants. Planted end of April start of May
 

Most of my garden was prepped the same way for everything that I planted.
1. I used my home grown Compost and fertilizer (mooo) mixed together and roto tilled this into the soil about two weeks before I planted.
Note: I concentrated this mix only in the areas that were being planted. No reason to feed the weeds.



I mounded the dirt into hills approximately 4 ft. in diameter and one foot high. This gives the plants plenty of mix and allowed for good loose soil for roots to grow and water drainage. I took my yard grass clipping and spread them on top of the mounds. This not only continued to feed the plants as it broke down, it also held moisture for a long time, minimizing watering needs.



After the plants got about half of its normal heights (best guess) I then mixed miracle grow with water and treated all the plants.







 

Cucumbers:
This is a new addition to the garden. I quit counting how many I picked this year. Well over 40 and the plants are still producing.






I did better than last year in my plant spacing. The plants are touching and need to be at least another 2 feet further apart for a walk way.

Grandpa hint:
The end of July I side dressed each plant with steer manure.



I found a 10 foot section of chain link fence 5 feet tall and put this up near the garden area for my climbing green beans. It worked great but I would have liked a bit more heights.

















This is the first time I've planted broccoli. I planted 14 plants in a row and they did really well. I will double or triple the quantity of plants next year to get a good useful crop for our needs...We love broccoli!










Another first is cantaloupe. Once you taste truly fresh cantaloupe you will want them in your garden each year.





Grandpa hint: for best results:

Normally I watered the vegetable plants at least once a day. During the hottest days in the summer month I watered the plants at least twice a day. To conserve water and minimizing weeds, while watering the plants I concentrated mainly on the roots.

Note: I do not set up a sprinkler to water the whole garden. It is not doing the garden any good and you are just promoting growth of weeds in your walking paths.

This year I have continued composting and it is doing great. I trimmed a lot of the growth from my plants this year that were nutrition robbers for the fruits and veggies and put this right into the compost pile. I am really concentrating on obtaining a lot of stuff for my compost pile this year and hope to double my garden size next year. I am not making my garden larger so much for the extra stuff, even though I have made numerous summer friends, but adding some other plants and flowers as well as more space to walk in.

I am thinking of things that the grandkids and I can work on to put some fun into the working of the garden next year.

How about some characters like a Jack and the bean stalk - for beans, bunny rabbits - for carrots, Popeye - for spinach, jack-o-lantern – for pumpkins, etc.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!

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