At my age,  I am learning as fast as I can about vegetable gardening! Lucky for me I have two very good teachers. The first is my brother,  Jonathan, who sits with me in the mornings through the week and we have our devotions and coffee on the front porch where we can feel the weather of the new day starting, whether it be the sun or the rain and some wind on most days.  Just listening to him talk about “our little garden” he tells me way more things than I’ve ever heard of. Plants are living things to him and he communicates that in every sentence he speaks. For example, one morning we were looking up to see if rain was going to come soon because he said you’re not to water until the plants bow their heads and ask because it’s good for the roots to grow deep in search of water and that makes them stronger. Then we walked to the garden and saw some dead leaves at the bottom of the plants and he said it’s better to cut them so not to disturb the ground by pulling which might bother the roots. And  throw the dead leaves outside the garden so if they have disease on them it won’t get on other leaves. On another morning when we were watering because the rain wasn’t coming for several days I started to pull a few dead leaves when he said ” stop” and he continued to tell me that when the leaves are wet from rain or watering and you touch them with your hands you could get bacteria on the plant from your hands. Who would have thought!! And he talks all the time of the importance of the sun. The more sun the more vegetables and the better tasting they are. That’s why when planting he is so particular as to where the garden is planted to make sure shadows from the house or tall trees don’t fall on it so to allow the most sun available during the day.

Then I have my beloved brother in law, David Yaussy. Through the years I have watched him  grow all kinds of things in between rocks and in drain spouts. In yards and places you wouldn’t even think possible. He’s never afraid to try. He’ll talk to me about ideas for hours and has spent time sending me emails with detailed lists of what I need to buy or build. So this year my son, Adam built our above ground garden using his math mind to calculate the proportions and it’s perfect! No bending over to hurt our backs and with the right soil combination the vegetables are growing crazy.

Thank you, to these important men in my life!!  And I’ll have to say thank you to my husband ahead of time because when I’m gone to see my sister in California this summer  he’ll have to water and collect all this wonderful bounty!!