Your vegetable garden is landscaped, isn’t it?

I really only need a garden for one thing – fresh tomatoes. I think Dan’s requirement is corn. But we want a big garden this year. After all, we do live on a farm. After all, fresh from the garden tastes so much better. After all, there are no pesticides or herbicides used in our garden. After all, a good farmer’s market isn’t exactly down the street around here; all the farmers head to our old city neighborhood with their crops.

Since we cleverly located our house 1/2 mile from the existing garden, we decided it would be good if we could at least see the garden from the house. We made a list of everything we wanted in the garden this year and Dan plotted the new house garden on paper.

But before any tilling or seed planting was done, Dan’s first order of business was to landscape the garden area. Of course! Never mind there is not a single bush adorning our house. He dug some of the bushes and grasses previously transplanted in the swath of horticulture beside the front garden. Soon, the hose shed {former livestock trough}, compost bins (former hotel balcony railing and some old patio stones), and the tool shed (former outhouse on another farm) were graced with bushes and divided grasses. Some of the bushes, several envelopes of flower seeds culled from all over, 45 plum and smoke trees wrangled from an LG&E surplus giveaway, and 40 feet worth of Jerusalem artichoke tubers line the perimeter of the yard. This makes the house look lonely, but I’m sure there’s a plan. There always is.

In the meantime, here’s the hose shed with it’s nice plantings of ornamental grasses.

Dan plotted a 90×60 garden near the house. The old front garden is reserved for corn and melons. After two trailer loads of 2-3 year old manure from the neighbor, sand from the creek, big bags of vermiculite, some sulfur and peat moss, we’ve got much of the garden tilled and planted. Here’s the list of what you those who know and love us should expect to be eating from our garden:

2008 Master Garden List –

Brussel Sprouts	Cantalope	Basil
Asparagus	Watermelon	Rosemary
Green Beans	Sweet Onions	Thyme
Lima Beans	Green Onions	Mint
White Beans	Cauliflower	Lavender
Broccoli	Sugar Snap Peas	Cilantro
Cabbage	Green Peppers	Oregano
Kale	Red Peppers	Chives
Corn	Chili Peppers	Parsley
Cucumbers	Potatoes	Carrots
Garlic	Sweet Potatoes	Radishes
Yellow Squash	Blueberries
Lettuces	Gooseberries	Artichokes?
Kale	Grapes	Soybeans?
Spinach	Strawberries	TOMATOES

Bold indicates the plants or seeds are in the ground as of April 29, 2008

This does explain a lot

Some years ago, I was sitting in a Myers-Briggs personality type class. We’d done our personality type profile and were discussing the types. So much became clear. I turned to the HR director sitting next to me and said “well, it’s perfectly obvious to me now why I feel I am in the wrong job”. And a lot more than my uneasiness with my job became clear – my whole life became more clear. I ran home to Dan that night and busted in as he was attempting to shower in peace. I started going on and on about how what I’d learned that day, what it meant about me and how much it explains. He opened the shower door, and said “and I really needed to know this right now?” My preference was yes, that he did. When he took the profile, I understood the poor guy just wanted to clean off the grime of the day, both literally and figuratively. That shower let him decompress and gain the energy needed for the rest of the day. Lesson #1 –he’s an introvert, meaning that he gets his energy from within; the extrovert in me meant that I gather energy from those around me. Unfortunately in this case, the introvert in the shower lives with the extrovert who barges in unlocked doors.

Want to see what your personality preferences are? Look here for a more in-depth look at Myer-Briggs personality types, or take the test at mypersonality.info.

Twenty seven years

That’s right. Dan & I have been married for 27 years!! Not a big milestone anniversary. But it’s interesting – anything 20 or over and people are just amazed these days. And “certainly you’ve got a secret or two for staying together?”, they ask.

All I really know is if I hadn’t married Dan 27 years ago, we would have missed this.

Intro

When the house was nearly built, and I wrote a particularly witty musing to go with the pictures on my WebShots emails I was sending out , our daughter suggested that a blog would have been a good idea for those near daily postings. I was tired and injured and the house was almost complete.

So, when I started snapping pictures of the house garden “project” here on our farm, I thought perhaps it was time to start blogging. There are a few people interested in what we’re doing, and a few people might be interested in my thoughts on other things. From what I understand, there are also some people who prefer to read my written words than listen to my ramblings. So those folks are in luck. You can read and look at what I post here, or you don’t have to hear it in any form.

I started writing as an angst ridden teenager. Those notebooks and folders were foolishly destroyed by a twenty-one year old who thought it was best those teenage actions, feelings and dreams never get seen by anyone who might have me thinking I should explain myself. Now, this 48 year old rarely feels a need to explain myself. I never consciously act in a way that could hurt anyone else. Feelings are never right or wrong, they just are. And well, my dreams are mine — and I still have quite a a few.

Zigzaggedy – If you know me you know that is my life. One day I’m on one path, the next day another. My brain goes in 27 directions at all times. I hate chaos, yet sometimes I am chaos. I’m always trying to find my way. There’s no telling what tomorrow will bring to me or to you. Keep holding on. That’s what I do.

PS. I have a lot to learn (especially technically) about blogging. As with the rest of the things I do – trial and error will be seen at this URL.

PPS. I’m working on my photography skills.