Seed Catalogs and Growing Things

My pantry is empty. No jars filled with goodness from the past summer. No relish, no jam, no pickles.
I have already put sweet potatoes in jars on my window sill in hopes that by spring time I will have slips to plant to grow for a bed of sweet potatoes. I plan on planting other potatoes, and beets and squash and on and on it goes. Last weekend we took out all of our berry vines so we can move them to another spot.

I couldn't believe how they had multiplied. I am sure more will come up and I will just move them over. These are thornless boysenberries. I have some thorn ones mixed in there because the ones with thorns really do produce the best flavored berry but they are miserable to pick. We will see if I keep them when it comes time to get them in the ground.

The poor abused artichoke continues to grow. If you want to grow artichokes, you can't be nice to them. Maybe water but nothing else, because once you begin taking care of it, it will just die. I ignore it most of the time and it is now about five years old and it comes back every year. It even had a baby but I think I forgot about it and Ron plowed it under. Oh well. This one grows more artichokes that we eat.

Its a chicky year. I need new hens and I am fighting it. But I would like to get fifty new hens. That number keeps going up. In December it was 15 new chicks. A couple weeks ago it was thirty. Now I am telling you that I need fifty. I need lots more chickens than I have now. I think I have 15 hens.

I let the chickens out where we were working so they could free range. Sasha went and got in the chicken pen. She just seemed so happy there in the pen. Silly dog.

 

Here we are mid January. I really did think I would write more than just a little bit for 2019. Life has a way of taking all of my attention. January 1st Ben and Megan announced they would be moving to North Carolina. That day I also found out we would be having our 11th grand baby. Our youngest son was in China amid state department warnings of traveling there. When he bought his plane ticket there wasn't drama with the U.S. and China. He made it home safely. Last weekend our number 11 grand baby went to heaven. Mom and Dad are doing okay this would have been their first.  So the first 19 days have been rather wild.
Gardening for me allows me to process and working with new plants and dreaming of spring and seeds and even chicks helps me to stay grounded and helps me to keep my head on straight. Plus like crying in the shower, crying in the garden is a good place to get over myself.

Now to grab the hula hoe and work on this giant bed of stinging nettle I have growing in the back yard. Amazing stuff stinging nettle. I should dry it all and use it for tea.

I wish you a wonderful day.

~Kim~

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isiah 55:8-9