This is the first post in what I hope will be a regular feature that follows our efforts to grow vegetables with a friend and my sister in the plot pictured here. I have no idea how successful we'll be, but I'll fill you in on how it goes.
We have not had much luck growing vegetables in our yard. It is small to begin with and what there is is hilly and shady. We have planted tomatoes several years in a row, and have only harvested a handful of fruit. Efforts to grow squash, cucumbers, and potatoes in other parts of our yard were similarly disappointing.
So when our neighbor Mary, who has a beautiful vegetable garden, approached me and my sister Sarah to see if we wanted to share a vegetable plot, I loved the idea. In my mind, Mary would be the brains of the operation, offering her experience to help make the garden successful. Sarah would provide the land (more about that in a minute) and I would provide, well, to be quite honest, I'm the weak link here. Gabe and I did have a wonderful plot in a victory garden years ago, and we harvested lots of delicious vegetables, although we also were cited by the garden council for having too many weeds. But I am willing to give this some time and effort, and I thought it would be great for the children to watch their food grow from seeds for the whole farm to table experience.
The reason that Sarah has so much wide open space is that she and her husband Ed own Black Ankle Vineyards in Mount Airy, Maryland. I have to digress here for a minute to say how amazingly awed and proud I am of Sarah and Ed. When they started out in their daunting effort to operate a vineyard and winery in Maryland 7 years ago, those of us who were on the sidelines agreed that if anyone could succeed, they could. And succeed they have. They are now producing fantastic wines and selling them in their beautiful tasting room (pictured above) that they built almost entirely with materials from their farm. Before they even opened the doors to the tasting room, their wine had gotten rave reviews and won multiple awards, including the prestigious Governor's Cup for the best wine in the state. I feel so lucky to have been a witness to their success. I often joke that even better than owning your own vineyard is being the sister of someone who does. I feel like I have so many of the perks with so little of the hard work.
OK, that was a bit off topic, but I thought a bit of context was necessary. Back to the garden plot. Sarah offered to let us use a big plot on her farm for our project and she and Ed plowed it so that the soil was already turned when we began.
Gabe and I headed out with the children one Sunday afternoon to see if we could plant some early spring vegetables. My fantasies of the children delighting in digging in the dirt were not quite met, as they were much more interested in running off to play with their cousins. And who could blame them? But they did dig up some weeds, do some hoeing and digging, and plant some seeds. I think that's pretty good for a first day.
Between bursts of rain and wind, we managed to get one long row mounded, weeded, and planted. Mary had recommended that we add compost to the soil, but the wheelbarrow was broken and Sarah reassured us that the soil was in good shape. So we decided -- on our first day of garden work -- to ignore the advice of the woman who actually has had a fabulously successful garden and go without the compost. By the end of the afternoon, we had planted carrots, Swish Chard, bush beans, snap peas, and mixed lettuces. Now we just have to see if they'll grow.
Oh I love this! I'm so interested to hear how things go in your garden having expanded the plot in our garden this year, reinforced our deer fence, and added compost! BTW- We didn't add compost last year and things did fine if you don't count how the deer nibbled off the tops of the tomatoes at the beginning of the season. Hence the deer fence! Anyways, good luck and love the pictures!
Posted by: Leticia | April 18, 2009 at 12:09 AM
so fun! and, you know if it doesn't work out, you can always come next door and pick some amazing vegetables from our garden. :-)
Posted by: rosana | April 19, 2009 at 05:04 PM