thursday thursday

Happy Thursday, and, in honor of my dear friend Kate's model of blogging, here is what I'm thankful for in my garden world today:

for corn forming on the stalks in my three sisters garden, and the fact that the pole beans climb up them with no human intervention whatsoever.

for zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers.

for my delightful pup, Huck, who always greets me with such excitement and love.

(ironically,) for my having heat stroke last week! this week, I'm drinking water out the wazooooo, which makes garden work in the sun a million times more enjoyable.

for heirloom tomatoes - brandwines, german johnson, evergreens, kellog's breakfast, and more.

for new crops coming up from seed - white beets, red beets, golden beets, chard, arugala, and a whole new crop of sunflowers.

for the fact that I get to pull up our poor, disease-infected cucumber crop today!

for Eliza, who is my family, and whom I love immensely.

for fall gardens, for which I'm selecting seeds this very day. we're going to grow brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, beets, radishes, carrots, and more.

for being forced to learn to not let the negativity of others affect my mood, or ability to accomplish work.

for electrolyte tablets! :)

for burgundy and multi-colored okra.

for sunflowers yet again - always for sunflowers <3.


We're coping with the struggles of the disease and blight problems as best we can - spraying with neem oil (which is an organic, plant-based fungicide and insecticide). I think that we'll most likely lose some plants, but the bulk of them appear to be growing and producing in a very healthy way. Today I'm feeling really joyful, despite some inter-staff conflicts, because a garden mentor of mine told Eliza that these are the best gardens that Eliza's ever had. These words make me swell with pride.

I'm going to savor this feeling today while working in the gardens. Wish me luck!