7-19-10

WE SHOULD HAVE POSTED THIS PHOTO DAYS AGO

IMAGINE A ROSE GARDEN HERE

GETTING THERE

TADA!

FRUIT: OUR IDEA OF HEAVEN

QUIRKY QUEEN OF THE GARDEN

HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

Roses are for love, and lovers get married and go on honeymoons. So shouldn't honeymooners plant rose gardens together to celebrate love? We, along with Carolyn, decided the answer was yes. She had a small garden bed behind her greenhouse that was overgrown with weeds and in desperate need of a makeover. This morning we came to its rescue. First we pulled everything out and brought it to a secondary compost area. There are several compost areas here, one of which is mainly for weeds and large debris. By keeping weeds in a separate compost area, there is less of a chance that weed seeds will spread and germinate in the compost, thus, spread all over the garden when compost is applied. Without weeds in the bed, we loosened the hard, compacted, gravel covered clay soil with pitchforks. Once the soil loose and more malleable, the next step, of course, was to bring in lots and lots of manure. To add extra nutrients, we sprinkled organic rose fertilizer in the holes we dug for the rose transplants. The organic fertilizer contained kelp, rock phosphate, and other ingredients. After amending the soil, we transplanted several rose bushes and watered them in well. Hopefully they'll bloom, smell wonderful, and put love into the air.

All this lovey-dovey emotional stuff made us hungry, so this afternoon we went fruit picking. Aaron carefully climbed the sour cherry tree again to harvest the rest of the fruit. Over the past few days, many unripe cherries ripened, and after today's harvest the tree is practically empty. Simultaneously, Jen picked raspberries, which was a way better job, because it's way tastier. It's a good thing Jen had this job instead of Aaron, because if Aaron were picking the raspberries, he would have eaten 90% of them, and that's just a conservative guess. Let's be honest, Jen ate her fair share, but she brought several pints worth in the house after her harvest.

We're learning the key to sustainable agriculture has just as much to do with growing strategies as it does with preservation strategies. Harvesting half a sour cherry tree, turning it into pie, and eating it in two days isn't really the model of fruit preservation. But it was quite delicious. So to make up for our indulgence, we immediately froze most of the raspberries at their peak flavor to last for the next several months. The plan is to turn the remaining sour cherries into pie filling and freeze that filling, so come the winter, the taste of summer will return.

**In reference to a comment about us wearing green bracelets at Glendale Gardens, we were given them to wear so we wouldn't have to pay an entrance fee our second day of the Organic Islands Festival. Since we were invited, we got into the event for free, and upon arrival the first day, they handed us them and instructed us to each wear one, that way, we wouldn't have to show a pass all weekend.**