Late August in the Garden

With the amount of rain we have had (a lot) and the time of year (dog days) the garden is feeling soggy, blown-out, overrun by pests, and overgrown.

But the gangly, bug-eaten plants are still producing a lot of food, and the zinnias, sunflowers, and marigolds keep on coming.

We're almost finished planting our fall garden (more on that later), but honestly what I feel like doing is throwing in the towel and going out for pizza. In the meantime, here are a few things that are still growing strong:

Stowell's Evergreen heirloom corn: the oldest known named variety of sweet corn, a cross of two Native American varieties.

Lots of tomatoes, but they're all still green. Rain is good for corn and for fall garden seeds coming up; not so good for tomatoes ripening. Since this photo was taken, late blight has appeared on the leaves of most of our tomatoes.

Cherokee Trail of Tears Black Beans: we planted 1,000 beans this year.

We interplanted the beans with Waltham Butternut squash.

Beans on the vine. . .

Onions, thanks to my seed-saving friend Trina from South Carolina. We've never met, but she sent me some onion seeds in the winter that produced these lovlies and lots more!

Vegetable husbandry, succession gardening, and prayers for rain

The late corn that Bud and LJ and I planted is coming along, though getting a bit choked by it's overzealous bean sisters. It's raining a little today (HALLELUJAH!!!) and I'm hoping the rain will give the corn the boost it needs to outgrow the beans a little.

Since it's such a small patch of corn, we'll have to hand-pollinate at some point soon. I'm excited for our first adventure in vegetable husbandry/wifery, which is far less daunting than the livestock equivalent.

Meanwhile, we harvested a bunch of carrots and beets over the weekend (see below), some of which we enjoyed shredded last night in a delightful salad with white beans, wild rice, sunflower seeds, parsley, celery, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar (plus salt and pepper for those of you who want to try this at home).



The rest of the beet and carrot harvest is either fermenting in one of the various crocks crowding our kitchen counters, or in cold storage (aka the fridge) to last, we hope, until the next round of roots are ready.

We're direct seeding carrots, beets, radishes, and mustards now for the fall--the photo below is C. mulching a carrot/radish bed we sowed on Saturday with heirloom French Breakfast Radish and Scarlet Nantes Carrot seeds.



The idea is that we'll keep sowing beets, carrots, and radishes every few weeks until the weather gets too cold--succession planting so that in theory we should have root crops to eat and share for a good while to come.

In the meantime, I am holding out hope for an long, steady downpour today (it's just a drizzle at this point) for our garden and all of the plants and animals, including we human animals, that are so desperate for rain after so many months of drought.

Let's have some RAIN!!!

We come in peace, to dig and sow

Today LJ and JDH IV and I dug a new bed, in which Bud planted 2 long rows of seed corn.

I'll plant black beans in between the corn rows tonight once it cools down a little.

It was so delightful to dig with friends. Unbelievably, we didn't think to sing the Diggers anthem that LJ and I have been singing intermittantly for the past 24 hours, which actually mentions corn specifically - more on this later.

Bud says that the first time he planted corn was in 1998 after he got back from England (home of the original Diggers of 1649 fame, incidentally). So 10 years later, he's still planting corn. He's planted it pretty much everywhere he's lived -- mostly in cities. I remember him tending a couple of rows on Crown Street in West Asheville years ago when we first knew each other.

Here's Bud planting corn today.

I wonder if corn was grown on this land in prehistory? It's an ancient, ancient food, and I'm grateful to Bud for blessing this land by planting some here now.

Now, back to the Diggers. I've heard this song called both "The Diggers' Song" and "World Turned Upside Down" -- it was written by Leon Rosselson based on the true history, and the first version I heard and loved was performed by John McCutcheon. Later I came to to love Billy Bragg's version too.

It's a great song for today's digging with friends, and all work to restore and renew the commons, cultivate land, grow food, resist "the god of greed," and build community....

In 1649
To St. George’s Hill,
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people’s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed
reclaiming what was theirs

We come in peace they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common
And to make the waste ground grow

This earth divided
We will make whole
So it will be
A common treasury for all

The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain

By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command
They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feeds the rich
While poor folk starve

We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now

From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers’ claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on

You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down