Growing potatoes , a friend explained, was absolutely her favorite vegetable to grow in her garden. She had a huge gorgeous yard, filled with any and all things our zone would allow. Her eyes lit up, and a smile spread slowly across her face. Potatoes she said, the very best part is that everything wonderful is buried in the ground. You can’t see it until the right moment. I watched her one day, she was like a giddy child waiting to unwrap a present. She dug lightly around her loamy soil, exposing potatoes as she worked.
She shouted, yes shouted “ look at all the nuggets of gold!” She ,of course, was referring to 2” size yellow potatoes. I couldn’t help but laugh, her joy was contagious. I dote on my own garden now. Gardens come in all shapes and sizes. Mine is contained in a very large group of pots. Free fruit and veges we always say. So much fun to pick out your meal right out your door, herbs to enhance it.
“Planting herbs in a pot can be a powerful means of transformation.”
I have watched friends find their happy place again, just by gardening.Thanks for spreading the word Bill , a wonderful post! Glad to hear the League is still ‘tight‘.
Yes. Potatoes are amazing. All of the root crops are startling in their beauty when they pop out of the soil. Potatoes are particularly generous and gorgeous. I also love the surprise of pulling of sweet potatoes out of the soil. They can be huge.
I am glad to hear that you are enjoying gardening in pots. I grow plants in pots outside our back door and I bring some of them inside over the winter. I am really excited about a fig tree I have growing in a pot. This is year two and I just found tiny figs emerging from the trunk last week.
Thank you. Your new book inspired me to write more openly about gardening. Your stories really opened my mind to new possibilities and prompted me to trust the magic. I was struck by the similarity between a Robin Wall Kimmerer quote I read this morning and the sentiments in your book.
"It's risky, though, to love the world, in a time of climate peril. Your heart could get broken. The places and beings we cherish are evaporating before our eyes... But the plant teachers remind us that often the cure grows near to the cause. The cause for the fear and the pain of loss is the love we bear for the land. And love, we know, is the cure for loss, the antidote to fear. Love is the medicine when it changes us, and we change the world."
Thank you! I love her writing too. I'm so glad you enjoyed my book! My mind continues to be opened. Since I wrote Love Nature Magic I've stopped weeding almost completely. It's been amazing to watch my yard and garden transform. Turns out nature knows what it wants and what it needs. And that means less work and more joy.
I have followed a similar approach. I still weed some of my beds just before planting, but I let a lot of plants grow in the margins and during the periods when I am not growing a crop. I am favoring plants that work well with my approach and I let dill, wild petunia, violets, buckwheat, phacilea, hairy vetch, wild strawberry, various clovers, and other plants grow in most places. My role in the garden has become much more subtle and less intense. I think in terms of conducting in a sense and less about domineering. This form of letting go has been very gratifying. My primary tools are a small shovel and one of the tiny colinear hoes from Johnny's Seeds. I no longer use a tiller.
I do weed my organic garden, but not the rest of our land. Part of our "yard" is a former pasture. The rest is woodlot. Quite a few of the "weeds" go into our salads. I do pull a few things from the yard, like thistles and tansy, and from the woods, like blackberries that spread too much.
I love that you and your gentlemen gardeners get together! The world needs more sensitive men talking about our trees, gardens, and eating plant based meals together.
My husband and I are part of our towns new community garden we all got together and built this year—in one of our town selectman’s yard—(26 raised beds!)—until our town politic could get it together to approve where it was intended to be. We will be moving it this fall. Woohoo! It’s amazing what a committed group of families can do!
My own gardens are flourishing now and I’m already giving back to the pantries I’ve had occasion to gather supplies from thru this past year. It’s humbling but I’m grateful I still have the stamina at almost 72 to be able to garden and be of service.
You are welcome. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Good luck with your community garden. I hope you find a good spot. I am glad to hear that you are starting new gardens and that your gardens at home keep you young.
I love watching things grow in my garden. I have the advantage of being retired, so it's easy to keep up with the weeds by doing a little every day. I also enjoy allowing some of the plants to go to seed, so I can collect the seeds for next year's garden.
That is great. I work from home, so I also manage the garden in small daily doses. I let plants like dill, basil, arugula, and others go to seed. Sometimes, I do not even have to plant. I just favor the plants that pop up in a good spot.
Me too. In Western Oregon's generally mild climate, I have kale and chard all winter. I let some of them go to seed and let them sprout wherever. Only bought the seed once - 24 years ago - LOL.
This fills me with delight — and hope. You’ve got me itching to find a community garden here in my new town. Thanks for the DH Lawrence quote — never realized he was so tuned in like that. Is that sumac tea you’re drinking?
Hi Julie, I am glad to hear that you are filled with delight, hope, and an interest in gardening. We were drinking a mulberry shrub, which is mulberry juice, apple cider vinegar and sugar.
I loved this article Bill and the photo of your group. I posted it on FB with comments.I was inspired to check on a community garden and to march against herbicides, due to the spreading damage to our trees and soil. Thank you again.
Feeling so uplifted by this post Bill! Here is a link to another post with pod cast that I think you and your followers might like to know about. Another source of knowing that we are not alone in our love of the plant lives around us. https://kollibri.substack.com/p/public-debut-of-podcast-episode-1
Every week as I read your post, I envision what I want my yard to become. When I moved here, we had several trees, mostly Pine, and have many of them removed due to various reasons. My favorite, an approximately 70-year-old Silver Maple that stood feet from the house had to come down when it was discovered to not only be hollow but being held together with several 12-inch bolts. The Pine trees came down after they began to die, and the Birch tree was removed after it was killed by bores.
The yard, and my shoulder, are finally healed up and the task of transforming my property into a nature sanctuary is about to begin.
I have an Oak tree growing under my deck that is going to get moved this fall and a Maple tree is coming from my mother's home to replace the one that we had to take down.
I have visions of fruit trees lining the property, and repositioning the garden to a new spot that gets better morning sun.
That sounds like a good plan. Fruit trees are very rewarding. I enjoy caring for them and watching them grow. The anticipation of ripe fruit just adds to the experience. My yard is lined with semi-dwarf fruit trees that are now ten years old. We have a little green oasis that is loaded with fruit most years. My goal has been to be able to walk out in the yard an pick fruit everyday between May and October. We achieved that goal a couple of years ago.
One thing to consider with your fruit trees is to select the most disease resistant cultivars you can find. They tend to accumlate disease over time and starting with resistant trees helps increase their lifespan. Good luck.
I loved reading about the league of gentlemen gardeners! And that vegetarian paella looked fabulous. I’ve been growing garlic and sweet potatoes in our towns community garden for about five years now. I grow enough garlic to plant 60 head in the fall and the rest I eat over the winter. It’s amazing how long it lasts! I’ve been growing sweet potatoes for the last four years and you’re right… Some of them are huge! My first year growing them in 3 grow pots I had 43 pounds! And they’re so nutritious. You’re so right Bill about feeling close to nature and mother earth as well as each other when gardening.
When 2 of our grandchildren came to visit and plucked a ripe strawberry to eat, and ran along the garden paths I fixed up 2 years ago, that’s the highlight of summer for me! I’m striving to create a sense of joy for them in the garden & to have those life long memories.
Growing potatoes , a friend explained, was absolutely her favorite vegetable to grow in her garden. She had a huge gorgeous yard, filled with any and all things our zone would allow. Her eyes lit up, and a smile spread slowly across her face. Potatoes she said, the very best part is that everything wonderful is buried in the ground. You can’t see it until the right moment. I watched her one day, she was like a giddy child waiting to unwrap a present. She dug lightly around her loamy soil, exposing potatoes as she worked.
She shouted, yes shouted “ look at all the nuggets of gold!” She ,of course, was referring to 2” size yellow potatoes. I couldn’t help but laugh, her joy was contagious. I dote on my own garden now. Gardens come in all shapes and sizes. Mine is contained in a very large group of pots. Free fruit and veges we always say. So much fun to pick out your meal right out your door, herbs to enhance it.
“Planting herbs in a pot can be a powerful means of transformation.”
I have watched friends find their happy place again, just by gardening.Thanks for spreading the word Bill , a wonderful post! Glad to hear the League is still ‘tight‘.
Yes. Potatoes are amazing. All of the root crops are startling in their beauty when they pop out of the soil. Potatoes are particularly generous and gorgeous. I also love the surprise of pulling of sweet potatoes out of the soil. They can be huge.
I am glad to hear that you are enjoying gardening in pots. I grow plants in pots outside our back door and I bring some of them inside over the winter. I am really excited about a fig tree I have growing in a pot. This is year two and I just found tiny figs emerging from the trunk last week.
Figs would be amazing! For anyone ‘listening in’ to our conversation that is still contemplating a garden; tonight, we are making pizza .
I’ll be walking out to our deck, to pick gorgeous and sweet Sungold tomatoes, fresh Basil , fresh Parsley , a red pepper to be roasted.
Garlic (this years garlic is not ready yet) and cheese of your choice.
All grown in pots. Very tasty!
I've always like the French word for potato - "pomme de terre", apple of the earth.
I love this!
Thank you. Your new book inspired me to write more openly about gardening. Your stories really opened my mind to new possibilities and prompted me to trust the magic. I was struck by the similarity between a Robin Wall Kimmerer quote I read this morning and the sentiments in your book.
"It's risky, though, to love the world, in a time of climate peril. Your heart could get broken. The places and beings we cherish are evaporating before our eyes... But the plant teachers remind us that often the cure grows near to the cause. The cause for the fear and the pain of loss is the love we bear for the land. And love, we know, is the cure for loss, the antidote to fear. Love is the medicine when it changes us, and we change the world."
Thank you! I love her writing too. I'm so glad you enjoyed my book! My mind continues to be opened. Since I wrote Love Nature Magic I've stopped weeding almost completely. It's been amazing to watch my yard and garden transform. Turns out nature knows what it wants and what it needs. And that means less work and more joy.
I have followed a similar approach. I still weed some of my beds just before planting, but I let a lot of plants grow in the margins and during the periods when I am not growing a crop. I am favoring plants that work well with my approach and I let dill, wild petunia, violets, buckwheat, phacilea, hairy vetch, wild strawberry, various clovers, and other plants grow in most places. My role in the garden has become much more subtle and less intense. I think in terms of conducting in a sense and less about domineering. This form of letting go has been very gratifying. My primary tools are a small shovel and one of the tiny colinear hoes from Johnny's Seeds. I no longer use a tiller.
Nice! Where do you live?
I live in Normal, Illinois a couple of hours south of Chicago. We are in between Peoria and Champaign Urbana.
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. We just received World Heritage site status!
I do weed my organic garden, but not the rest of our land. Part of our "yard" is a former pasture. The rest is woodlot. Quite a few of the "weeds" go into our salads. I do pull a few things from the yard, like thistles and tansy, and from the woods, like blackberries that spread too much.
A heartwarming piece, Bill. Gardening is so therapeutic as well as hard work but well worth the effort. Great writing.
Thank you.
I love that you and your gentlemen gardeners get together! The world needs more sensitive men talking about our trees, gardens, and eating plant based meals together.
My husband and I are part of our towns new community garden we all got together and built this year—in one of our town selectman’s yard—(26 raised beds!)—until our town politic could get it together to approve where it was intended to be. We will be moving it this fall. Woohoo! It’s amazing what a committed group of families can do!
My own gardens are flourishing now and I’m already giving back to the pantries I’ve had occasion to gather supplies from thru this past year. It’s humbling but I’m grateful I still have the stamina at almost 72 to be able to garden and be of service.
As always, I love your posts! Thank YOU!
You are welcome. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Good luck with your community garden. I hope you find a good spot. I am glad to hear that you are starting new gardens and that your gardens at home keep you young.
I love watching things grow in my garden. I have the advantage of being retired, so it's easy to keep up with the weeds by doing a little every day. I also enjoy allowing some of the plants to go to seed, so I can collect the seeds for next year's garden.
That is great. I work from home, so I also manage the garden in small daily doses. I let plants like dill, basil, arugula, and others go to seed. Sometimes, I do not even have to plant. I just favor the plants that pop up in a good spot.
Me too. In Western Oregon's generally mild climate, I have kale and chard all winter. I let some of them go to seed and let them sprout wherever. Only bought the seed once - 24 years ago - LOL.
This fills me with delight — and hope. You’ve got me itching to find a community garden here in my new town. Thanks for the DH Lawrence quote — never realized he was so tuned in like that. Is that sumac tea you’re drinking?
Hi Julie, I am glad to hear that you are filled with delight, hope, and an interest in gardening. We were drinking a mulberry shrub, which is mulberry juice, apple cider vinegar and sugar.
Yummy!!
I loved this article Bill and the photo of your group. I posted it on FB with comments.I was inspired to check on a community garden and to march against herbicides, due to the spreading damage to our trees and soil. Thank you again.
Feeling so uplifted by this post Bill! Here is a link to another post with pod cast that I think you and your followers might like to know about. Another source of knowing that we are not alone in our love of the plant lives around us. https://kollibri.substack.com/p/public-debut-of-podcast-episode-1
A rewarding, satisfying, joyous life. Superb photos and that paella looks SO good! A lovely way to finish my day. All the best. 🤗🤗
Excellent!
Every week as I read your post, I envision what I want my yard to become. When I moved here, we had several trees, mostly Pine, and have many of them removed due to various reasons. My favorite, an approximately 70-year-old Silver Maple that stood feet from the house had to come down when it was discovered to not only be hollow but being held together with several 12-inch bolts. The Pine trees came down after they began to die, and the Birch tree was removed after it was killed by bores.
The yard, and my shoulder, are finally healed up and the task of transforming my property into a nature sanctuary is about to begin.
I have an Oak tree growing under my deck that is going to get moved this fall and a Maple tree is coming from my mother's home to replace the one that we had to take down.
I have visions of fruit trees lining the property, and repositioning the garden to a new spot that gets better morning sun.
You truly inspire me to see this to completion.
That sounds like a good plan. Fruit trees are very rewarding. I enjoy caring for them and watching them grow. The anticipation of ripe fruit just adds to the experience. My yard is lined with semi-dwarf fruit trees that are now ten years old. We have a little green oasis that is loaded with fruit most years. My goal has been to be able to walk out in the yard an pick fruit everyday between May and October. We achieved that goal a couple of years ago.
One thing to consider with your fruit trees is to select the most disease resistant cultivars you can find. They tend to accumlate disease over time and starting with resistant trees helps increase their lifespan. Good luck.
I loved reading about the league of gentlemen gardeners! And that vegetarian paella looked fabulous. I’ve been growing garlic and sweet potatoes in our towns community garden for about five years now. I grow enough garlic to plant 60 head in the fall and the rest I eat over the winter. It’s amazing how long it lasts! I’ve been growing sweet potatoes for the last four years and you’re right… Some of them are huge! My first year growing them in 3 grow pots I had 43 pounds! And they’re so nutritious. You’re so right Bill about feeling close to nature and mother earth as well as each other when gardening.
When 2 of our grandchildren came to visit and plucked a ripe strawberry to eat, and ran along the garden paths I fixed up 2 years ago, that’s the highlight of summer for me! I’m striving to create a sense of joy for them in the garden & to have those life long memories.