Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

After getting off to a slow start this year we finally planted our garden and have been busy with it for the last week. I almost thought the rain would never let up enough for our yard to reasonably dry up. So far our little garden already looks better than our first attempt that was last year. One of my husband’s friends came by with a tractor and plowed our spot. After a few days my husband ran a borrowed tiller through the garden before we went to pick our seeds and tomato and cucumber starters. Sunday was hot and the four of us spent it working together. we had to get it done it was our last day before the work/school week. The grownups were in charge of making straight rows while the kids were in charge of playing in the dirt. The best part to the brothers of course is the watering, and they got free reign over that.

It has been exactly a week since we put everything in the ground and we see a little bit of growth. Big Brother is especially into gardening this year. The other day he bust through the front door with and ear-to-ear smile and exclaimed, “ Our seeds, they’re growing! I see plants out there mom! Come look!” I had seen them earlier that day but went outside and acted as excited as Big Brother. He was so proud that he pushed these little seeds into the ground the week before and could see them sprouting through the dirt so soon. Little Brother was a good helper when it comes to watering. He happily will fill a cup up with water and pour it on one plant at a time. We have to keep a really good eye on him no matter if he is a foot away from us or thirty. He tried to drink the rain bucket water which would have been fine if I didn’t know birds go near it. Most of the time he is careful of our plants and rows but when he’s in a testy mood he will run across the garden. When he doesn’t respect our rule of walking around our plants or up and down row instead of on them he gets the boot. He’ll sit where the grass of our yard meets the black soil. Like an invisible fence around the garden, Little Brother will cry his crocodile tears and drag his lips around the perimeter knowing he lost his privilege and never takes his banishment well.

Big Brother has taken up the responsibility of watering his plants. Which are one cherry tomato plant and he’s giving pumpkins another shot so he’s got two of those. Last year his pumpkin plant dried up and barely grew at all but this year he swears that he’s not going to let that happen. I guess we all learned a thing or two from last year. Little Brother has taken up doing whatever it is his brother does. I have become almost obsessed with weather. You know whether its going rain or not. Because if it’s not going to rain then we have to fill up our big bucket out near the garden by filling up Culligan jugs to carry out. We have no hose, our house doesn’t even have a spot for it outside to make one. Too bad I wasn’t a seasoned gardener when we moved in because I would have for sure noticed that!

To give you an idea of what our family’s little garden looks like I can say it has seven spaced out rows. Another thing we learned from last year was to make sure there is enough room between rows to walk a tiller up and down it or you are stuck pulling weeds by hand. So if you’re looking from right to left you’ll start at our corn. Next is yellow beans and third is green beans. My boys love their beans so we had to do a row of each again. The fourth row is made up of all our tomato plants. We have eighteen in total so it looks like I may have to show up at my grandmother’s house come harvest time with canning essentials and force her to teach me how to can. Fifth row is our variety row, green peppers are growing following behind them are three red pepper plants. My husband also put in a little section in that row of assorted hot peppers and jalapeños. At the end of the variety row is our carrots. We’ve never grown them and I personally have no idea if they’ll take or not but we’re giving it a go. The cucumbers make up the entire sixth row and are doing ok. The seventh and very last row is pickling cucumbers. My husband’s family make excellent pickles so I have a pretty good hunch that he plans on learning to do that for a first time this season. I got a little ambitious and had my husband make me a little garden box so I could try my hand at growing strawberries. Even if I am unsuccessful maybe I can get the hang of it for next year. Oh I almost forgot about the places Big Brother chose to put his little tomato plant and pumpkins. The tomato plant is at the beginning of our variety row and his pumpkins are way at the end of the cucumbers.  Well it’s looking like a summer full of time with my little planting partners.