Susie is starting a vegetable garden at the Fiber Farm! I am excited to be bringing you occasional updates on the garden’s progress, as well as some comments on gardening in general.
Like practically every other venture, gardening can have lots of false starts. False starts and failures are fine—the important thing is to learn from them, try again, and not give up. So I’ll be reporting the failures right along with the successes.
I seem to have failed at my attempt to convince Susie to plant lima beans. I hated lima beans my entire life. Found them absolutely disgusting. I reluctantly planted some in my vegetable garden when my mother requested them. What a revelation! Fresh limas are like an absolutely different food! You don’t see them much—they are a bother to shell, but in my opinion, well worth the trouble. My favorite variety is called Christmas lima; it has an amazing nutty flavor, reminds me of chestnuts. It is really very un-lima. It is an heirloom bean from the 1800s; many seed companies carry it, including Seed Savers Exchange . Unlike many limas—limas like the south– it will grow to maturity here in Dutchess County, New York. They are extremely vigorous plants and need sturdy support for their vines. I will bring Susie some from my garden this year, and we’ll see what happens next year…
Here is Susie’s garden being tilled by Patrick and some friends:
Could you have a prettier garden setting?
Christmas limas are beautiful dried:
You can easily find tons of info for beginning vegetable gardeners. New York Botanical Garden has put together a nifty beginner’s guide, and it isn’t overwhelming:
http://www.nybg.org/edible_garden/beginners_garden.php
Arno contemplates escape. Okay, not a gardening picture, but I couldn’t resist throwing in some animal pictures:
Erin and friend:
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
That last picture with Erin and the little goat feet sticking out is too cute! And you’re right, that is a gorgeous setting for a garden.
All we are saying is give beans a chance
With each succeeding picture, my wish to visit the farm becomes stronger. What a beautiful setting! Your first blog was very written and interesting to read. It sounded as if you were talking to me. Good luck with “birthing” the garden. (With all the births happening at the farm lately, I thought that word would be appropriate!)
I’m reaping the rewards of my first garden already! But I’m way down south in SE Louisiana. Squash, okra, bell peppers, cucumbers, egg plant. The tomatoes are just beginning to turn pink so ripeness isn’t that far off! My first one will be eaten with sea salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil on toasted French bread. Keep the articles coming – I look forward to learning and broadening my knowledge everyday!
Does anyone know where that chicken coop is from? Or is it homemade? I have a big coop but sometimes need to separate a chicken or two and it looks to be the perfect size. Thanks for any info… Happy gardening!
i love the pictures…garden and all! thank you.
Erin, that’s the sweetest pic of you!
My Grandpa always had lima beans in his garden – my Great-Grandma taught me how to shell them – in our matching sunbonnets! I’m sure that’s why I love them to this day! Thanks for reviving a sweet memory!
I’ll be reading your posts eagerly as I’m doing my first “real” veggie garden this year. Only grew tomatoes, flowers and herbs in the past. I’ll be looking for helpful tips. I hate limas and “butter beans” but I’ll watch you enjoy them
Great job Linda – loved the pitch for my favorite, limas, but I gotta tell you – posting the picture of Erin totally stole all your glory. That is the sweetest, ahh-inspiring picture.
Now to drag myself away from the cuteness overload to go hunt up some Christmas Lima seeds. Yum!
That portrait of Erin is priceless! sighs heavily at computer screen! – OK – been putting stuff in the garden, do ya think 9 tomato plants is enough for 3 tomato eaters??? HA!
Thanks to everyone for your kind words about the garden blog
Jennifer, the chicken coop is not homemade–it came in the mail. We’ll have to find out from where from Susie or Erin.
Happy gardening!
Linda,
I enjoyed your post and pics
looking forward to gardening vicariously through you till i have another garden of my own.
xo
love
rona
Erin, what a great picture!!!
I am still so bummed I missed you guys, I was dying to see you. It’s been SIX MONTHS. Ah, well, you guys truly missed THE most boring game in baseball.
what an awesome photo! i took it and am using it as wallpaper for the moment! i hope no one minds…
i will be looking forward to all the help i can get for my small container garden here on my patio. i would also LOVE to come back up to the farm and give a hand with the garden, if one is needed. my folks live in hopewell & my brother lives in fishkill so i am up there very often. please let me know if i can be of help! ;>
Linda,
What a great idea to compliment an already amazing blog! Can we ask you questions?
I am in my third year of garden in this house and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. This year we finally built a walk-in squirrel free zone to prevent the theft of our tomatoes!
Broad beans are also super delish – I sampled some from a friend in the UK last summer and this year I am putting my own in the ground. Yummy yumma!
Such a beautiful natural setting. And what a cute picture of Erin. ;How deep is the topsoil there? Out here in the west, where the developers skim off and sell any topsoil as their first step, we couldn’t even rototill our dry clay until I sprayed a few times with Adobe Buster.
I’m envious of the view and green grass. I’m looking forward to your entries and the development of the garden.
I stand with Susie on the lima bean issue. I love most other beans, but not limas. But I’d give fresh ones a try.
Hi Deb–
While I can’t speak for Susie, my guess is that she would be thrilled to have help in the garden. She is putting in quite a big garden–it looks like it will be a challenge to maintain!
My sister does container gardening too, out on her deck. The tomatos in particular have done remarkably well…Her main challenge is keeping everything watered…
Hi Kim–
Sure you can ask me questions–although the more I learn about gardening, the more I realize I don’t know. But if I don’t know the answer, I bet someone else here will…
I love the squirrel-free concept–that must have been a bear to build.
Hi Maureen–
The topsoil around here is not particularly deep, and we grow plenty of good rocks. But the garden soil has been tilled to about a foot deep, and Susie had a load of topsoil brought in. And her compost operation seems to be ever-expanding, which should be a wonderful boon to the garden.
ahhhhh arno…..