Sabbatical Garden

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.                             
-Marcus Tullius Cicero

I have decided to reframe this past year and have declared it to have actually been an unexpected sabbatical. And because every sabbatical needs a purposeful project, I believe that we can claim our vegetable garden as such. It was and continues to be an experiment in self-sufficiency, botany, chemistry, and even perhaps spirituality (if you count singing to your plants a form of prayer, as I do). 

This morning I was looking at the scene below and felt a surge of pride at our little vegetable patch. Our garden has been the manifestation of the one word we decided to work on for this year: tenacity. We have learned that just because something looks like a withered brown stick or a piece of wet tissue paper does not mean it is dead. In fact, patience and love do triumph in the end. This may seem commonsense to my wise readers but for me who is always ready to jump instead of to sit still, it has been a very valuable lesson to glean from my sabbatical.

Anyway, without further ado, let me show you around our garden, as it is now in mid-July. 

We chose the backyard instead of the original garden space in the front of the property because:  
 a. it's easier to keep an eye on the kids and b. it's rather gorgeous.

White and yellow Italian strawberries, grown from seed. It took them forever to get beyond the little sprout stage but here they are, looking rather lush.

Our okra forest.

Sorry for the blurriness. We have two types: Alabama red (seen here) and Star of David.

An okra blossom. I did not know this until I grew okra but essentially the okra is the blossom, curled up. Something quite lovely about that besides for being such a delicious vegetable. 

Eggplant patch. 

Edirne striped eggplant. 

Asian eggplant.

Watermelons!

Moon and stars watermelon. 

Tomato forest. About 50 plants with a mixture of black plum and purple Cherokee. We are harvesting at least a quart of tomatoes everyday now.

Pepper patch.

Chocolate bell peppers. They will turn a purplish brown and be rather sweet.

Wenk's yellow hot pepper. Mildly hot. 

Italian cowpeas. They are finally getting the hang of the trellis. 

Japanese climbing cucumber. Currently the caterpillars are feasting on this luscious vine but it is a determined plant.

Colette's sesame plants. We actually have a row of these at the back of the garden that are still only a tenth of this size. Colette planted these when she was helping in the garden and did her part to water them everyday. That girl has quite the green thumb, ne?

Okay, so it is hard to see the veggies for the weeds here but this is our green onion patch. It is quite prolific despite the weeds and has been our source of negi goodness for a few months now.

The fields of greens. Well, this was our greens patch, kale, mizuna, rainbow chard, and collards. Until June we were eating salads with every meal but they could not survive the 97 degree days. The collards are actually still trucking and there are some experimental edamae and shallots buried in there.


Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. -A.A. Milne
Since we have sandy soil, we found that most of the weeds are helping the garden. They also attract pollinators so frankly, I am fond of the weeds. Even the stinging nettles that I despised as a barefoot child are welcomed in our garden.

The Swing of Things

It is March 21st.
Spring has sprung and it is only three weeks until this little one is set to hatch (though with my late children, I am not expecting anything until the end of April). Last week I was hit with a cold that made me inclined for the horizontal rather than vertical activities. Being sick also makes me feel lazy, especially with all the t's I need to cross before next month.

This week I am better and have managed to complete my taxes and other misc. paperwork that had a timestamp blazing. Not fun stuff but necessary stuff.
I have reclaimed my sewing table and have managed a few steps towards completing that massive list I posted before. A reversible jersey knit cap has been made, along with a quilt and a couple of blankets. Today I will finish the little kimono tops and baby towels (they wrap babies up in towels instead of blankets here). I will try to take some pictures later today to share with you.

The closer I get to the due date the closer I find the unnecessary aspects of life falling away. There are a lot of things that will not get made or written and instead of it bothering me, I find relief in that realization. There are a lot of pressing concerns around here, specifically financial worries, but at this particular moment, I am just grateful to be home and have what I do have. When the belts are tightened, it becomes necessary to use what is on hand more than we do if we have a broader income. Lots of bean dishes are being served more often now. Luca's things are being made primarily from samples I had for the shop. And a lot of the things I am making for the shop will also come from what I have in my scrap pile (it's a nice pile).

I am from a generation that started out despising the term "frugal" and has now embraced it as a lifestyle choice. I would rather have less money and more time and now I get to discover the cost of that wish. It takes a lot of grey matter to manage it but the benefits are definitely worth it. I am sincerely grateful for what I have before me right now. Which happens to be a very kissy two year-old who wants my hands to "hurry up" and play with her instead of the keyboard.

Hope you are all doing well. Take care.