A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

When people ask what I’m planting in my garden, I tell them “everything.” They laugh and I laugh and it’s all great fun but it’s also sort of true. I am planting a lot of different things this year. There are two reasons for this: 1. since it is a brand-new garden, I want to see what actually grows well in this climate with this soil and 2. I have accumulated a lot of seeds over the years and I want to use them.

I am taking inspiration from the Shakers so I’m planting vegetables they would have traditionally planted – beans, beets, carrots, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, cantaloupe, onions, parsley, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, sage, spinach, squash, tomatoes and turnips. I’m also stepping out of the Shaker model a bit and planting soybeans, kohlrabi, fennel, kale, chard and pak choi.

The bulk of my garden space is devoted to annual vegetables but I also planted some perennial favorites - asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, horseradish, chives and thyme. I have always wanted a strawberry patch, especially since I haven’t been able to make my annual picking trip with my grandmother. She’s still alive and well at 90 and still picking strawberries but I’m a couple hundred miles away now. After her hip replacement some years ago, one of her physical therapy goals was to be able to get down on her knees and back up again to pick strawberries; a goal she achieved, by the way.

With the gorgeous, warm (almost hot) weather of the past few weeks, I found that all the garden stores were out of things like asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries so I had to order them online. I don’t like ordering live plants like tomatoes and peppers, though. I would rather have a good look at the plants in person. So, even though it is still too early to plant such things, I went to the greenhouse this weekend. I worried that if I waited I would not get the varieties I wanted. It was a successful trip. I got a Juliet tomato plant (my favorite), as well as, a Beefsteak, an Early Girl and a yellow pear tomato. I got peppers and eggplants, too, and some perennials for around the house. Now, we just have to keep them alive until it’s time to put them in the ground. At least with the humidity up we can use the water from the dehumidifier in the basement to keep them watered.

Plants from the greenhouse waiting to be planted.

I’m afraid I was rather short on pictures to illustrate this post but here are some photos from this weekend.

For Future Reference

There was not much progress made on the garden this past weekend as other projects popped up.  We did get the pool cover laid down under the wooden walkways to serve as a weed barrier.  I hope to have more to report in the next couple of weeks.  I really want to have construction finished before winter sets in.  Of course, around here, snow can fly in October so I should get my butt in gear.

The Garden as of Sunday, October 12, 2014

In the meantime, I figured I would go through some of my reference books for this project.  For some reason, I love reference books.  I know that I can look up almost anything online now, but I enjoy having shelves full of books that I can flip through when the need or desire strikes me.  The general gardening reference section in our library is fairly good.  I’ve got the standard A to Z gardening encyclopedia as well as several how-to guides.  I’m a huge fan of the Storey books. 

Gardening reference books in the home library

The book that first fed my dreams of a Shaker style garden was The Shaker Garden: Beauty Through Utility by Stephanie Donaldson.  It is a beautiful book filled with wonderful photographs of vegetables and various shaker tools and buildings.  It is a very basic practical guide but, by design, only focuses on Shaker gardening.

The source of inspiration

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I know very little about Shaker history.  I know what I assume is common knowledge: Shakers were a religious sect that lived communally, though men and women were separated.  They made furniture and sold vegetable seeds and generally led simple lives. ('Tis the gift to be simple, after all.)  So, I turned to Amazon and found a couple of books so that I can become more educated about the people I hope to emulate, at least in their gardening practices.

New books - yay!

My books just arrived today.  I’ve only had a chance to flip through the first one but I have high hopes.  The People Called Shakers by Edward Deming Andrews was first published in 1953 after Mr. Andrews had spent some 35 years researching the Shakers.  It seems to include a lot of primary sources so I’m excited to find the time to read it. 

The second book, A Shaker Gardener’s Manual is a modern reprint of an 1843 publication by the United Society, New Lebanon, NY.  This tiny book is 24 pages of pure gold when it comes to a practical, first-hand source of Shaker gardening information. I read it cover to cover and am now anxious to try to find the varieties of seeds once sold by that Shaker community.  I also want to try the rhubarb pie recipe in Chapter XI.  Keep an eye out for that recipe adventure next spring when rhubarb is in season again.

German Giant tomato sandwich

"Tomato or Love Apple. – F. Tomate. – S. Tomatera. – This is a very healthy vegetable, and a great favorite when we become accustomed to it, though generally not very palatable at first." - A Shaker Gardener’s Manual, p.18. (A nice slather of mayonnaise helps!)

And So it Begins

It's time to get this blog started.  I've been thinking about it for quite some time now but, as with many things in life, I haven't gotten past the thinking stage to actually doing. That's going to change now. 

Several years ago I had the idea of creating my own Shaker-style garden.  The Shakers valued order, practicality, and efficiency in many things, including gardening.  Often their gardens had raised planting beds, wood or brick walkways, and a fence around the whole thing.  Their gardens were both functional and beautiful.  They were also fairly permanent, so for me as a renter, a Shaker-style garden had to remain just a daydream.

This summer my husband and I finally decided it was time to buy a house.  We found a nice little cottage with a big back yard.  In the middle of that back yard was a pool that hadn’t held water for many years.  It was made out of plywood and 2x4’s and after we signed all the paperwork and became homeowners, removing it was one of the first things we did.  The process took several weekends but, with the help of my father-in-law, we got it done.

Pool early in the de-construction process

At least three large frogs called this home.

With the pool out of the way, we now have the perfect place for my Shaker Garden.  The space where the pool sat is about 16 feet wide by 24 feet long and nice and level.  We were able to salvage much of the wood from the pool and it is going into constructing the walkways, raised bed and fence.  There was even a nice pile of gravel used for fill that will go into some other narrow paths within the garden.  I hope to get everything set before the snow flies so that the garden will be ready and waiting for planting in the spring.

The pool's gone and the first walkway is in.

The white box in the back houses our weather station.

I expect this blog to be a combination of an account of the garden-building process, a record of planting, an amateur how-to guide, a collection of attempted recipes, a photo album and a journal for times when I feel like reminiscing.