6 Nov
Dog Day Gardening
I try to be careful anymore with giving scripture references so as not to take anything out of context, but I found this and thought it pertinant. We complain here about the heat and lack of rain, when we ought to praise God that we aren’t in the shape the folks in Jeremiah were:
“The Word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the matter of droughts. Judah mourns, and its gates droop. They are black to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters; they came to the cisterns, and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground was cracked, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed; they covered their heads.” Jeremiah 14: 1-4
We bloggers generally like to post the pretty pictures. I decided today to take some of the not so pretty, the garden in August. I can certainly understand the shame of the plowman.
Technically, we’re not really in a drought. It’s just a typical late summer in southern Oklahoma. Despite using some supplemental water, the garden is a shambles. Lord willing, things will begin to cool off a bit in a couple of weeks and there will be rain to nourish a fall garden. We continue to praise God, though, as amidst the carnage there are blessings.
Many of the trees are wilting and shedding their leaves:
The sorghum is tolerating the heat and starting to ripen. In a couple of weeks I’ll harvest all the heads and mow it down. Lord willing it will make a fall comeback and at least provide a little fodder for the rabbits. I’ve seen it do that in the past:
The melons are done in:
The corn was basically a failure, but we are blessed with a few big full ears to provide seed for next year. We always save the seed that makes it through the heat of summer, hoping it to be more hardy and adapted to our climate than the original:
The tomatoes are making it, but the blister bugs have arrived:
The basil isn’t minding the heat too much:
Nor are the Szegedi Giant paprika peppers or the habeneros:
The sweet potatoes are limping along:
The kale is surviving, but the grass in the bed makes me want to cover my head:
And the sunflowers are making the best crop we’ve ever had:
Till next time, Blessings.
Judy
Posted by Manette on 06.11.08 at 1:11 am
Hi Judy,
My garden is looking pretty much like yours these days. Everything is slowing up until it cools off. (me especially!)
Hope all is well with you.
Manette
Posted by Eric on 06.11.08 at 1:11 am
” It doesn’t seem to me like our gardens are as prolific as our grandmother’s were. I wonder why that is?”
In my case, I know exactly why it is: My grandmother spent half her life gardening, because it was a necessity if they wanted to eat, while I’ve done it about 5 times, as an entertaining hobby.
My wife’s grandmother, who is fullblooded Creek (a native speaker, English is her second language), came down a few summers ago and spent a week with us. She took one look at our pitiful corn crop and just started giggling.
Posted by tabletophomestead on 06.11.08 at 1:11 am
Eric, I don’t have much luck with watermelons most times. I think the soil “up here in the Tabletops) is just too heavy. Some years I have pretty good cantelopes. It doesn’t seem to me like our gardens are as prolific as our grandmother’s were. I wonder why that is?
Thanks, Lacy. Corn is something I really want to get good at growing, but I’m not there yet. At least I can usuallly get seed back.
Posted by Razor Family Farms on 06.11.08 at 1:11 am
We have given up on growing corn here in our small corner of west central Georgia. Our first crop began just fine - lovely in fact — but then its growth became stunted and then a cloud of mysterious insects descended upon my poor corn and devoured it overnight. Friends of ours (who use chemicals on their garden — yuck), planted corn this year. They saw our corn last year and declared that hosing them with chemicals would have prevented all our problems. Guess what happened to their corn this year? Stunted and then devoured by the mystery bug that is (apparently) impervious to ANY and ALL chemical concoctions. We all met for dinner the other night and had a good laugh over the whole thing. Why not?
I love when you share pictures of your garden!
Blessings to you!
Lacy
Posted by Eric on 06.11.08 at 1:11 am
Gardening for us has always been a hobby we enjoyed. This is the first year since we moved back to Lindsay that we haven’t done a garden… got a little too busy with other stuff and a little too discouraged after the drought two summers ago, followed by last year’s non-stop rain!
But I am missing it right now. Even with the heat, I’d almost give a pinky finger for some garden cucumbers and cherry tomatoes.
I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about their watermelons not doing well. Some friends who farm on Rush Creek planted 400 watermelon seeds and were having a weak crop, and then the coyotes got into it and ruined about half of what had grown.
We had an awesome watermelon crop last year, it was about the only thing that went right with our garden. For some reason we have never had much luck with our corn.
Hope you can find a shady place to watch the garden grow today. It’s too hot to do much else!