Nearing the end of the growing season

The raised bed garden on Aug. 23, 2014.

The harvest from our raised bed garden is nearing its end. We’re still getting a few cucumbers, but other plants have died, wilted, or been pulled up.

It was a season of adventure and disappointment. We didn’t get the tomatoes we wanted—blight took most of them. And we didn’t get any broccoli—green worms got those plants.

But we got plenty of two types of lettuce, lots of cucumbers, peppers, and onions. We felt the pleasure of working soil. We enjoyed the excitement of watching something grow from seeds—watching that process will never get old.

And we learned a lot.

*Decide early on if you’re going to use pesticides or go organic.

*Don’t plant too much, too close together.

*You will have to thin some plants.

*If you buy plants, buy early and buy the best looking ones you can find.

*Get a good gardening book.

Seedlings in April 2014.

Raised bed garden on May 10, 2014.

The addition of tomatoes on May 19, 2014.

Raised bed garden on June 15, 2014.

This fall, we’ll be working on the soil in the bed. The topsoil that we bought for it was supposed to be great for planting. But we found that it contained a lot of clods of dirt difficult to break up. And the soil got too hard once it dried.

Larry has already worked up one section with materials including peat moss and perlite. We’ll do the rest this fall and add some composting type materials to it, too.

And I plan to learn more about organic gardening and have supplies on hand early next year.

All in all, it’s been a rewarding experience. And like all farmers, we hope for a better crop next year.

If you have a garden, how did yours do this year?

Gardening, knitting, books, and hints of fall

Hello, dear readers. I’m finishing up the week with a hodgepodge of things that I’ve been doing and observing:

Our garden is just about over for the summer. Larry picked these cucumbers and peppers Thursday morning.

We were disappointed that the tomatoes didn’t do well. We also didn’t get any broccoli or fully-grown carrots. But we learned some things that we’ll put to good use next year.

***

The scarf I started knitting has morphed into a kitty blanket. I started out with a width that I thought was manageable and suitable for a scarf. But I quickly found that it’s almost too wide to keep on my needles.

I also discovered that it’s the right width for Chase Bird’s kitty bed that sits under the sofa table in the living room.

So it will be a soft blanket for Chase Bird to lie on.

***

Last weekend I read an excellent book by Elyn Saks: The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness.

Saks is a law professor at the University of Southern California and has many more professional accomplishments.

In her book, she writes about her life with schizophrenia and how she built a life with work, friends, and love while battling it.

I didn’t want to put the book down. It was hard to read in places—she describes her psychosis with honesty and detail—but the way she fought through it to a good life is amazing and inspirational.

If you enjoy memoirs, you will enjoy this book.

***

We’re already seeing some acorns from the oak trees in the front yard. I’m so glad to see them. I hope we have a good crop this year for the animals. And I hope fall weather is not too far away.

This week’s weather in Central Virginia gave us a taste of fall—daytime temperatures in the 70s and low-mid 80s and some of the nights dipping into the 50s. I love fall, and I can’t wait for it to arrive.

But hotter weather is returning next week. Oh, well. Soon.

One thing about this time of year I don’t enjoy: allergies. I’m allergic to ragweed, and apparently, it has arrived. Itchy eyes, sneezing, sniffling—you get the idea.

Are there any signs of fall where you live? Do you even want to think about it? And what have you been up to this week?

Garden update

As we near the end of June, I thought I’d give you an update on our garden. These photos were taken June 15, so some things have developed since then.

Our raised garden is overflowing. We have an abundance of lettuce and plenty of onions. We lost the broccoli to green worms.

 Some of our tomatoes have blight, but others are doing OK. We’re hoping for some ripe ones soon.

The cucumbers have spread up the side of the garden, clinging to the wire. We’ve gotten one ripe one off of the vines, and others are nearly ready for picking.

A cucumber vine clinging to the fencing.

A baby cucumber.

The peppers have blooms on them now. Here you can see the irrigation system Larry built doing its watering work.

We’ve been frustrated and thrilled at the results from the garden so far. I guess that’s part of being gardeners. We hope to learn from our missteps and try different things in the future.

I’m planning a salad of two types of lettuce, onions, cucumbers and blueberries for lunch today. The blueberries aren’t homegrown, but the rest of it will be.

***

I have been pondering the future of this blog and trying to find a way to be of better value to my readers. I’m taking next week off from blogging, but I’ll be back Monday, July 7. I hope to still visit others’ blogs and keep in touch with you.

If you’re gardening this year, how are your plots growing? And for all of you, how is your summer going so far?

The garden is overflowing

Hello, dear readers. I’m sorry I’ve been missing this week. I have been very busy with work, and then so tired in the evenings, I haven’t been on the computer and doing my blogging as much as I’ve wanted to.

Our garden is bursting at the seams, it seems.

I harvested some of the Romaine lettuce, and Larry pulled some onions. No tomatoes, cucumbers, or other veggies yet.

I’m looking forward to a nice salad with fresh lettuce and onions.

***

Thank you to those who read and shared the CNN article “Religious OCD: ‘I’m going to hell.’”

The point of the article was not to paint religion in a good or bad light. It was to bring light to a subject that many people don’t understand. It was to let people suffering from OCD know they are not alone.

But many of the comments on CNN’s website were arguments about religion: whether or not God existed, whether or not a certain religion was the right one, who had the answers, who didn’t.

I didn’t read all of them—not nearly all of them. I couldn’t stomach the disrespect.

Not all the comments I read were like that. I appreciate all those who engaged in respectful discussion.

Religion doesn’t cause OCD. Believing or not believing in God doesn’t cause OCD.

OCD is probably genetic, or a mix of genetics and environment. The way that OCD manifests itself in my life, and in the lives of others with OCD, may reflect what’s important to us, or what we fear.

Being in an environment like my strict Christian high school probably was not the best place for me as a teenager. If I had been in treatment for OCD at that time, I could have dealt with my doubts and fears much better. But religion didn’t cause my OCD.

So I was disturbed by the tone of the comments.

But then I came upon an article by Parker J. Palmer that helped me put things in perspective. It is called “Reflections on the Inner Work of Holding Paradox.”

In the article, Palmer states, “For me, holding paradox means thinking about some (but not all) things as "both-ands" instead of "either-ors."

For example, he says, when we disagree with someone about a religious or political issue, we sometimes think that we are right and the other person is wrong.

He goes on to say:

“But both-and thinking can lead to something much more creative: ‘Maybe I don't have everything right, and maybe he/she doesn't have everything wrong. Maybe both of us see part of the truth. If I speak and listen in that spirit, we both might learn something that will expand our understanding. We might even be able to keep this relationship and conversation going.’"

That’s the kind of conversation I’d like to have. It’s better just to leave the divisive comments behind and concentrate on discussions created out of respect.

Altavista’s annual Uncle Billy’s Day Festival is this weekend. It will include a carnival, music, a craft show, an art contest, food vendors, fireworks (Saturday night), and more. But I may not make it. I am covering two high school graduations for the paper on Saturday.

Whether it’s attending a festival, working in your garden, hanging out at the house, or whatever you choose to do, I hope you have a great weekend!

The Barbour Salad Bar

Last weekend, Larry and I went to a nearby greenhouse and bought tomato plants and pepper plants. We chose Better Boy and Roma tomatoes and jalapenos and a red and green pepper variety.

Larry went to another greenhouse Monday and bought Beefsteak tomatoes to add.

Tomato plants, with the cucumbers at the left end. You can see the watering pipes laid out.

Pepper plants.

I love the lettuce section.

Our garden is practically full now. We may plant something else in the open areas.

But about those open areas—Larry is now building boxes to put around those areas to try to keep out the critter that has been eating the radishes. We’re pretty sure it’s a groundhog, though we haven’t actually seen him in the garden, just in the yard.

So far, he or she hasn’t touched the onions or the peppers. I thought I would just pull up the radishes—they didn’t develop because I had them planted too close together. But I’m leaving them for the critter since he or she seems to like them. And maybe they will keep the critter away from the other plants.

One of the valves in the watering system.

Larry is also working on a watering system for the garden. It really wasn’t much of a chore to drag the hose out to the garden to water. But Larry likes to design and build things, so he tried his hand at this. I said, go for it. It’s fun for him to experiment, and it’s fun for me to see him have fun.

The Barbour Salad Bar.

I look at the garden and think: that’s a great salad bar.

In other news, it is finally vacation time. I am taking next week off from my newspaper job. I have some editing work to do, but I’ll be working at home and will still have time for some relaxation.

My birthday is also next week, so Larry bought me some books early. I have some Harlan Coben to try (I’ve never read any of his books), a C.J. Lyons book (another new author for me, and some John Sandford (love his books!) to enjoy. I get so excited about new books to read!

I will be so glad to have some time to catch my breath. And I’m looking forward to getting around to your blogs and catching up!

If you have a garden (vegetables or flowers), how is it going this year? Have you read any good books lately to recommend?

Rain and a groundhog

The trees, grass, and shrubs are incredibly green right now.

One

Rain, rain, rain. That’s what we’ve had nearly all day Thursday and part of the day Wednesday. As I write this Thursday night, it’s supposed to last until Friday morning. I don’t know how many inches we’ve gotten here at the house—we don’t have a rain gauge—but some areas were supposed to get up to four inches.

Two

A critter got into the radishes planted in the uncovered portion of the raised bed garden this week. I’m surprised it took this long.

Larry found critter footprints on the raised bed and on pipe he’s using to put in a watering system (more on that next week).

Apparently, it’s a groundhog. We saw one in the backyard Thursday, munching away on the grass and clover. I think he’s cute. Larry does not.

No, I didn’t get a picture. But if he sticks around, I may get another chance.

Three

Speaking of radishes, I apparently didn’t thin them soon enough and/or enough period, and they couldn’t grow. Lesson learned. Many more lessons to come, I’m sure.

Four

I’m reading a very good book called Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker J. Palmer.

My minister recommended Palmer’s books to me, so I ordered this one and started reading it Thursday.

I am already marking passages and realizing that this is one of those books I will want to read again and again.

It’s raising questions in me that I want to write about. Sometimes I figure things out best when I write.

Five

Tonight I’ll take photos for the newspaper at the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life event in Rustburg, our county seat. I’ll try to get photos of the opening walks for survivors and caregivers and candid photos of participants.

The Relay is certainly a good cause. So many people’s lives are affected by cancer in some way.

Take care, dear readers, and have a wonderful weekend!

Finding joy in plants

Raised bed garden, May 10, 2014.

Someone told me last week to find what gives me joy. (You know who you are!)

I had written about the toll that covering court cases takes on me, what a difficult time I was having dealing with it.

So my friend gave me advice that we should all follow: find the joy.

Saturday morning I mothered my fledgling garden. I pulled a few weeds, loosened up the dirt and looked over the plants. And, of course, took pictures.

Here are some photos to catch you up on my growing plants.

Carrots and broccoli.

Cucumbers. We lost some of the early plants to a freeze.

 

Cucumber plant up close.

 

Onions.

Prize Head and Romaine lettuce.

 

Lettuce up close.

What has brought YOU joy lately?

I’ve posted my second blog post on my editing website. It's called "Just Start Writing." If you’d like to check it out, go HERE.

Monday’s garden update and feeling a little overwhelmed

The raised bed is not really sitting at an angle. I accidently created an angle when I snapped the photo.

 

Hello, dear readers. I thought that Monday would be a good day to update you on my gardening progress since I spend most of my time with the plants over the weekend.

 

Broccoli (left) and carrots.

 

  We had a heavy rain Friday afternoon. When I went out to look at the plants on Saturday morning, I was glad to see that nothing had been totally pushed down into the dirt, though I thought the lettuce looked a little waterlogged. I hoped the sunshine we received over the weekend would help it.

Lettuce

The plants had progressed over the three weeks since I planted the seeds and the onion sets.

 

Onions, with radishes on the far side.

 

And I got a nice surprise. I thought all the cucumbers had been killed with the freeze week before last. But I have some green shoots left. I still want to replant some cucumber seeds, though, along with some other vegetables.

I admit that I felt a bit overwhelmed when I saw the growth of the plants. Suddenly, I didn’t just have seeds in the ground that I could watch slowly push up into the light. Suddenly, I had real plants to take care of.

 

Things are growing!

 

My insecurity about my lack of recent gardening experience kicked in, and I thought, what do I do now?

I thinned the radishes, and Larry wondered if I was thinning them too much. I looked at the carrots and wondered if they were too close together. I wondered what I would do if the plants started dying.

Then I reminded myself that I have resources. I have books.

There are many resources on the Internet.

And I have my mother, who was a Master Gardener years ago and could make anything grow. She has retained a vast knowledge, from her studies and from many years of gardening.

I also reminded myself that this first year is an experiment. Larry and I will learn what will grow well, what won’t, what we need to do differently.

It will be OK. Deep breath. Deep breath. Let go of the anxiety.

 

How do you cope with that feeling of being overwhelmed? And for those who garden, what gardening book or books have you found helpful?

 

 

OCD victory: My hands in dirt

 

 

This spring I’ve written about the joy that I’ve gotten from my foray into vegetable gardening.

My joy goes beyond my pleasure in watching things grow and the solace it brings my soul to dig in the dirt and interact with nature.

My gardening is also a sign of a victory over OCD.

 One of the ways my OCD has manifested itself is through contamination fears. Basically, I feared germs because of the possibility of spreading them to others and making them ill.

One of the ways I dealt with my obsessions over germs was to wash my hands compulsively. I’ve written about how red and raw my hands and wrists became because I washed them over and over in hot water and soap.

Another way I dealt with my fears over germs was to avoid situations and activities where I was sure to get my hands dirty. Like putting my hands in dirt, on purpose.

 
  Over the years, I have experienced many victories over contamination fears. When I first started treatment for OCD and depression, I was able to start having houseplants. And I’ve had flower gardens sporadically through the years.

 But this is my first full gardening experience.

It feels good to know that OCD is not stopping me from doing something that I enjoy.

The journey to overcome my contamination obsessions and compulsions has not been short or easy. I’ve taken medication that has side effects and costs money that I would love spend elsewhere. I’ve taken therapy. I’ve read books and put new ways of thinking and reacting into practice.

 I’m not saying that I am no longer affected by my OCD. Each day brings its challenges, some big, some small. But I can more easily deal with the challenges, more easily turn back to what I was doing before the OCD interfered.

 If you have OCD, I encourage you to get treatment, to do the things—and it will probably be a variety of things—that will enable you to overcome the stifling effects of OCD.

 And for all of us who struggle with issues—maybe issues that no one knows about—let’s hold hope and do the work that we need to do to remember the joy that can be a part of any life.

 It’s been worth every penny and every struggle to stand in front of my garden and look at those lovely little plants beginning their own journey.

 What are you now enjoying in life that once seemed out of reach?

Gardening update: The thrill of watching things grow

Lettuce

As I write this on Tuesday night, it’s falling into the 30s outside. There’s a freeze warning, with temperatures expected to be in the 20s by morning.

I didn’t get home from the newspaper office until 9:30. Then I went outside to help Larry put a tarp and other protection around our tender plants.

The little green shoots are so pretty.

Radishes and onions in an open part of the raised bed.

On Saturday, April 5, I planted a variety of vegetables, including two kinds of lettuce, two kinds of onions, radishes, carrots, broccoli, and cucumbers.

Larry did the watering during the following week because work kept me inside much of the time.

On Saturday, I checked on the progress of the plants and watered them.

I was so excited to see the little bits of green popping up.

Radishes on Saturday.

Little onions on Saturday.

Lettuce on Saturday.

I know many of you have gardened for years, but it has been a long time since I’ve enjoyed the wonder of planting a seed and seeing something grow from it. It’s a thrill.

Sunday morning, I watered again and thought I noticed a little more growth.

Monday evening, things needed water, but I knew that the forecast was calling for heavy rain overnight Monday into Tuesday. So I just checked on the progress.

And boy, did I see progress. The radishes had grown significantly, and there were more onions popping up.

Radishes on Monday.

Onions on Monday.

Enough lettuce had grown to see the rows that I had laid out.

Lettuce on Monday.

On Saturday, I feared for my broccoli and cucumbers. But by Monday, little shoots were popping up.

Broccoli.

Cucumbers.

Now if they can just withstand any freezing.

Do you like to see new plants popping up out of the soil? What’s your favorite vegetable to grow?

Note: I am still a bit frustrated with my new computer. Bear with me if this page doesn't look like normal!

The gardening has started

We now have a garden.

On Friday morning, we drove with the trailer to a local business and bought top soil for the raised bed in our backyard.

Besides the soil, we bought seeds. And I got a couple of pair of new gardening gloves.

Back at home, we looked at the big pile of dirt—about three cubic yards of it—and started shoveling.

We filled bucket after bucket and slowly but surely filled up the bed, including the two end spaces.

My gloves helped to protect my hands while shoveling, but they got pretty dirty because I also used them to spread the dirt and dissolve the big clods of soil.

Our muscles were quite sore after all the shoveling, bending and lifting, but we were excited to finally have the makings of a garden.

And it felt so good to be outside and be busy with physically hard but soul-satisfying work.

On Saturday, I planted sweet onions, red onions, two kinds of lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, and radishes. As it grows warmer, we’ll plant some other vegetables.

I’m looking forward to seeing what grows and what doesn’t. We’re keeping records so we can learn about what works and what doesn’t.

What we’re really looking forward to the taste of fresh lettuce and onions and other good things.

***

On another note, I am going to have to take a short break from blogging because of computer issues.

Both Larry and I fell behind in operating systems, and it reaches a critical point on April 8.

Long story short, we ordered new computers. Mine is supposed to arrive on Wednesday.

Until I set it up and gain an understanding of the new operating system, I won’t be able to be online for blogging as easily as I was. So I will probably be absent until at least the end of this week.

I will try to keep up with other blogs as much as possible with my phone, but it’s harder to leave comments using the phone.

Just know that I’m thinking about you and will be back as soon as possible.