Garden Prepping

We had a gorgeous weekend in central NC. Summer heat without the humidity. We kicked things off with an early morning 5K run in Chapel Hill. I’m a volunteer coach with the Fleet Feel No Boundaries running program. I help women who have never run get from 0 to 5K (3.1 miles) over the course of weeks. My specialty is coaching the back of the pack runner (being one myself!). I love being able to help instill confidence in a person to do what they thought they could not – break the boundaries they have set for themselves.

Then, it was breakfast at a local diner, then back home to work in the garden. We got some veggie beds tilled, weeds pulled, and started work on a new flower garden in an area where we used to have a beautiful oak tree. The tree was well over 100 years old when it had to be cut down. We were heartbroken about it. It had a large vertical split – a result of severe ice storm damage, and a heavy ant infestation didn’t help. The tree was taken down several years ago (and we used the wood to heat our house for two years). The area where the stump was ground down was becoming pretty crappy looking – the residual underground stump and roots have been rotting, causing sinking spots in the yard. Nothing was really growing nicely. Hubby had the gumption to plot out a nice kidney bean shaped area to beautify. He started tilling and raking and moving grass, rocks, etc. I even got in on the action and helped pry up roots and rocks (yay, CrossFit – the workouts are paying off). This was some HOT work. On Sunday, hubby made a beautiful border with rocks that were bordering other beds. Now we will add some well composted horsey poo and top-soil. I’d like to grow sunflowers this year, eventually establishing perennials that don’t require a lot of water. I’m thinking Mediterranean.

Just getting started.

Almost done - taking a break!

Another fun activity was the Farm Tour. North Carolina has an abundance of small to large growers. Organic and biodynamic farmers, CSAs, farmers’ markets, etc., really do well here. The farm tour allows the public to visit working farms and connect with the farmer on a more personal level than even a visit to one of our many area markets allows. Due to our already packed schedule, we only got to visit three farms. My favorite was a farm that intensively plants on ¼ acre. We also had the opportunity to purchase tomato plants at this farm. We picked up 20 plants: Celebrity, Sun Gold (my favorite cherry tomato), German Johnson, and Cherokee Purple. I learned something at each farm we visited.

Harvest: I picked half a pound of red radishes. They have a nice sharp flavor. I used some in a veggie slaw: collards, cabbage, carrot, radish. The dressing was veganaise and ume plum vinegar with some mustard seeds and celery seed. Very delicious.