God's Grace and Minnesota Soil

Our garden sits where a dairy cow yard used to be.

I can't tell you how well this works out.

Actually I can: It has worked out well.

It's a well-fertilized haven for our veggies to grow and become the veggies they were meant to be in this world.

It's also a well-fertilized haven for weeds. But we have beaten them into submission (at least enough of a submission to allow our veggies to grow) so we shant mention them anymore.

Our garden is late this year, because we had such a cold and wet spring.

Our garden is especially late this year, because I wasn't able to get out there and do a large portion of the direct sowing until early June.

Yet it groweth.

And produceth.

And we loveth.

We've had such family fun out there this summer... The kids are old enough now that we don't have to worry about them wandering off, and we all just hang out... Mr. Blue and I pull weeds, and the kids literally roll around in the dirt. They play with dump trucks. They shovel random dirt into random containers. They wrestle. They make dirt angels.

That's right, I said 'dirt angels'.

Just like snow angels, except... Dirt.

Miss Peaches is even quite the little weed puller, bless her heart.

A lover of tomatoes, that one. And rhubarb, straight-up out of the patch. (No sugar or anything!) And raw turnips. She's a farmgirl, alright, top to bottom. She's as intrigued with the garden growth as I am.

On the other end of the spectrum, I'm about ready to take a machete to every other growing plant on the farm. It's all getting unruly. Drying up and lying down in a disorganized fashion. Brambly.

Rambunctious.

I didn't have much time for growing flowers this year, or maintaining the perennials that come back every year.

The only thing I managed to plant was this tank full of perennial gallardia and coneflowers. So far it's looking like a messy pile of green, but I'm starting to see a few blooms.

Look at this.

Perfection.

A perfect, tiny velvet cushion.

And this sunflower...

A 'weed'.

A remnant of sunflower seeds from the bird feeder. We were too busy to weed it, and I kind of thought it was going to be a sunflower, and I never eeked in any time to plant the sunflowers I had been intending to, so we just let it, and a few others, grow.

And now this little sunflower gathering has been my flower joy of the summer.

Although late, it is but the beginning of our garden's production for the year, and I can't wait to see what it has in store!

Comments

[Michelle]

My gardening consists of an herb garden in pots on the deck, but I always have big ambitions at the start of the year. I'm so jealous of that handful of sweet tomatoes you've got there!!!!

[beth]

Your garden is awesome! Sunflowers are one of my favorite flowers, too. Thank you for sharing your pics! I have a bunch of roma tomatoes ready for picking. I see fresh pasta sauce in my future! Tomorrow is jalapeno jelly making day!

[beth]

I just noticed your blog face lift. (I obviously need more coffee this morning). I love it!