they were so small...
I found this photo of Finn in the garden the weekend I bought him. It was early May, and the idea he (and the garden!) were that small just a few weeks ago nearly had me spitting out my morning coffee. It seems like years ago that I would wake up at 5, collect him from his tiny pen, and feed him a bottle of milk replacer on my lap. Last night the now sixty-pound wether and I went for a walk up and down the neighborhood. His horns are almost as long as my forearm, his stomach aches for grains, brush, and hay: our milk replacer days are over. And the garden now is in it's late middle age. The salad plots long gone. The pumpkins weaving around the green tomatoes. The corn is taller than I. Soon all that will be left is pumpkins on the porch and brown stalks tied to the doorways and arches. It was a good year in the garden. Really good.
It's nice to start the day with some perspective. Gardens and goats grow. You just need to wait and try not to kill them by accident in the meantime.
posted by Jenna at 7:23 AM
8 Comments:
Oooh, they're so sweet when they're little like that - like puppies! I don't notice them growing at all. I have to look at pictures too.
yup, just like a puppy or kitten...or kid for that matter! smile (though as they grow their expenses increase as well, giggle) Not ready for the approaching fall yet, even if it is my fav season. I noticed the second crop of lettuce coming in yesterday, the pumpkins are just larger than a soft ball so far.
How much do your pumpkin vines wander, or do you have them "trained"? I'm in the process of planning my first garden ever for next year, and I've thought about trying to grow a pumpkin or two, although to be used as sacrificial autumnal offerings rather than food. Yard size isn't an issue for me, but I'm worried about mowing around the vines, since I've heard that pumpkin vines are sensitive to damage and contact.
If anyone has any advice about first gardens, please let me know. I'm planning on one if not two raised beds and a compost bin of some type. I'm just starting out, and I'm reading everything I can get my hands on, but talking to people REALLY beats books.
so so cute...amazing how quickly things change!
Hey Bob!
I looked for your blog, but I didn't find you, so I'll put my 2 cents in here. I planted 4 squash plants in a raised bed where I knew there wasn't room. The dirt in the bed is the best, so that's where the roots are, but I have 'directed' the vines over the edge of the beds into another area that is not good dirt and some has short ornamental grass in it. I'm just not mowing where those vines are. I do point them in the right direction, along every couple of days. They are the same family, so I don't if pumpkins are alot different from that or not..
Anyone have a good choice for the area with the least amount of sun in your garden??
I just realized that I might be in serious danger of hijacking this thread, so please click on my name and email me through the link provided there. Thanks for your advice Karen Sue...I don't have a blog though...guess I really just don't have anything to say for the most part. ;)
In the Sierra Nevada mountains, where I live...We won't have our first tomato until September...
They last about a month, until the frost gets them. We're at 3,800 feet.
I live in southern Wisconsin and this weekend, I picked 11 tomatoes! As I stood at the kitchen sink ( I'm amazed I waited until I got in the house!) and looked at the 2 store bought tomatoes as I was eating the 'real' ones, the juice rolling down my chin, I thought to myself 'I won't feel bad putting the store bought ones in the compost!' Good gardening everyone! What fun. Arwen
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