Sunday, August 28, 2011

Well Now She Knows

My mom gardened almost all my years of growing up.  She would try to get me to help her plant and weed the garden.  I did not want to.  I usually would after being threatened.  But I hated helping.  We later realized I had a brown thumb.  Nearly everything I planted died.  I once tried to grow beans in a pot and they died.  Probably the easiest thing to grow and it dies.  My little sister, on the other hand, everything she touched grew wonderfully.

I could not find a picture of my mom in the garden.
But both pictures have the garden in the background.
Every year my mom planted tomatoes, peas, and a variety of other vegetables.  I didn't really care about anything but the peas.  I love fresh off the vine sweet peas.  I would go out in the garden and hide behind the wall of pea vines and eat peas.  I always thought my mom knew what I was doing even though I tried to hide.  A couple years ago I told my mom about it.  She said she thought her crop of peas for those years were just bad, and the crop the year I went to college was fantastic.  Well now she knows.

I did have one thing I liked to grow - strawberries.  But weeds were always a problem with strawberries.  I came up with a great idea of how to keep the weeds out of the strawberries.  We had a large tractor tire that we used to use as a sand box.  We filled it with dirt and planted the strawberries.  We never had problems with weeds again.  But we did have problems with the birds eating the strawberries.  I think my mom fixed this problem by draping a screen over the top.  Fresh strawberries are almost as good as the peas.

I now have my own garden.  I live in a rather small upstairs apartment, so a traditional garden won't work for me.  So I have a container garden.  I bought a couple rubber feed pans (for cattle) and planted peppers, cucumbers, eggplants, squash & zucchini.  I also have tomatoes, basil, mint, blueberries and garlic in pots.  With container gardening you don't have to pull weeds.  I love it.  I also love going out the back door to pick fresh tomatoes, zucchini, and mint.  My basil hasn't faired too well.  I think it's getting burnt up.  My blueberry bush will not produce this year.  I hope it will next because that's Lance's favorite fruit.  The eggplant is taking quite some time to produce and get very big.  And of course Lance loves the peppers.  I just wish I could grow limes and avocados.  It's just too cold here.

I recently found a recipe for guacamole that is perfect.  I think I could eat it everyday.  The fresh tomatoes make it even better.

Guacamole
2 Avocados
2 Tbsp chopped tomatoes
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/4 tsp salt

Mash the avocados and mix in the remaining ingredients.


It's perfect on so many things - tacos, burgers, veggies, chips, your finger...

No comments:

Post a Comment