Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, September 24. 2012

My Dad's vegetable garden

With deer fence. Nice garden. Mine is a complete mess right now, needs to be rebuilt. Dad has rows of raised beds, around 10 of them, inside the split-rail fence. One bed is asparagus, one is for my Mom's cut flowers. Peonies, Dahlias, Zinnias, etc.


As the trees have grown and begun to shade, the old folks want me to to come up with my chain saw and do some work. Dad's too old to be safe with a chainsaw, to put it mildly (Korean War vet, Second Lieut., US Army). Well, that's one more source of free firewood, but he needs some too. They have a wood stove in the kitchen. Yankees are cheap and proudly so, but we like to keep things looking orderly and respectable. Never know when the Pastor will stop by.


Maybe I will enlist my men's Bible study group for the job. Maybe my brother and my lad too. We like to do that sort of work, and all of them are young, strong, and enjoy chainsaws and wood-splitting. And we all enjoy doing hard work as a team. Lots of laughs, with beer. "Praise the Lord - the tree didn't fall on the truck."  Wait until the ground freezes and I can get a truck back there.


That is happy Autumn Clematis growing on their garden gate.


Posted by Bird Dog in Gardens, Plants, etc., Our Essays at 18:30 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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Pretty! It's a pleasure to see a nicely planned veg garden. We have something similar but not so pretty around it. Raised beds are a boon for those of us on clay. I dig in tons of sand and chicken dirt every year and I've dug trenches between the beds, then filled those paths with gravel to keep good drainage in the beds. Works great and is worth the work. We added bees this year and had the best harvest ever.
#1 weaver (Link) on 2012-09-24 19:21 (Reply)
Weaver, your blog rocks.
#1.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2012-09-24 20:54 (Reply)
I pity the poor man, he actually likes asparagus. Bet he chows down on broccoli (shudder).
#2 Alan Kellogg (Link) on 2012-09-24 20:41 (Reply)
No beer until the chain saw is shut off for the day. Ironclad rule with my family and friends.
#3 RonF on 2012-09-25 11:36 (Reply)
Weaver, I agree w Jephnol. And gorgeous pictures!

Now, Bird Dog: tell us what else your parents in their 90s grow, and no more feeble excuses for not doing as we'll yourself! I know, I know, you work...at least give us a list of what they grow. I'm impressed by the deer countermeasures. What do they do about the squash borers and cucumber beetles?
#4 Retriever on 2012-09-25 13:02 (Reply)
I'd like to hear what they do about those, too. I hate the vine borers and cucumber beetles. And squash bugs and margined blister beetles, too. I've tried a bunch of stuff. Next year I'm going to invest in a LOT of ladybugs. It's going to be a war zone, but at least I'll have help.
#4.1 weaver (Link) on 2012-09-25 16:00 (Reply)
They grow tomatoes, summer squash, herbs, lettuce, snow peas, spinach, swiss chard, bell peppers, eggplant, pole beans
#5 BD on 2012-09-25 17:59 (Reply)

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