In the Garden ~ by Faith

Last week I stayed up at my Great-Aunt and Uncle's to help them put in their garden. My Aunt starts all her plants inside, from seeds, and then moves them to her glass greenhouse to mature. She starts many more than she could possibly use, and sells the extra plants at the road. Every morning we carted the ( heavy!) flats down the long gravel driveway, and hung out the "Please Honk" sign. We sold tomato, lettuce, pepper, cabbage, and cauliflower plants for 1.50 a dozen. Many of the people who stopped by, are long time customers who know my Aunt's plants are superior and like the fact that she doesn't use any chemicals. She also has a large bed of Rhubarb and sells that by the pound. I LOVE Rhubarb! Usually I ate a couple stalks a day, and had a big spoonful of delicious rhubarb sauce on my oatmeal every morning. :-)

They have a very large garden, (as you can see from the pictures) about 240 feet long and 30-40 feet wide, so there is room for lots of plants! Throughout the week, we planted numerous seeds, including carrots, cucumbers, melons, squash, and lots and lots of corn. We also planted about 100 tomato plants, and pepper, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and onion plants. Everything gets watered with dilluted liquid Seaweed, and the tomatoes and peppers get some extra smelly Fish Imulsion. It smells awful, but it sure does make then grow well! :-)

I think plants are one of God's most wonderful creations. (But aren't all His works wonderful!?) Just think . . .you plant that dry, almost dead looking kernel of corn in the ground, water it, and in a few days a tiny, green, living plant pokes its way through the earth. It will, in time, grow to be taller then you, and provide you with food. All from that little seed! Now that's amazing!

The Garden! In the foreground, you see rows of tomato plants, then back and to the right are the peas, lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, (just to name a few :-) and to the left, a bed of early strawberries, and some peppers and onions. Way at the back there are more strawberries, a row of melons, lots of corn, squash, and more tomatoes.  

Here is the Iris bed. Very stunning when they are all in bloom! 

The Strawberry beds! Lots and lots of berries set on this year, yummy!  

My Aunt's beautiful blue Irises!