I am a Sunday gardener

My favorite garden companion, Kitty. My second favorite
garden tool, a mattock.

I am a Sunday gardener. Because of my work schedule, I do very little in the garden on weekdays. Caring for the critters bookends my everyday, with milking and feeding every morning and evening. Sunday is the day that I water and mulch and weed and plant. I do find some time to do some harvesting in the garden in the evenings. Fresh vegis and goat cheese make an incredible dinner.

Sunday is a good day to spend focusing on the divine aspects of this world, too. And what better place to do that than in the garden. I noticed this afternoon that my brain plays songs like "Angel Band" and "I went down to the river to pray" and "Dancing on the Sacred Path" as I dig and pull and make order among the weeds.

Three sisters - corn, beans, pumpkins

Today,with Kitty's help, I made and planted a Three Sisters garden. Corn and pole beans and pumpkins are supposed to grow well together, support each other and it is an interesting story. We'll see how it works out. I planted three rows,about 20 feet each. It's a little late, but I'm a Sunday gardener.

One of the messages for the day seemed to be that we didn't need to be using power equipment. I got my tiller fixed earlier this year, with Josh's help, and Shawn fixed my mower for me for my birthday. It really was what I wanted. So, this morning Lena was out cutting hay in the front yard/pasture and I was running the tiller in the Three Sisters garden when the tiller threw a belt and the mower threw a rod.

After running into our little town and discovering that several people could order the belt for me, I decided to come back home and dig the garden by hand. With our turf, that takes a mattock, (my second favorite gardening tool after a dibbler.)

Had the Three Sister's garden planted
but not quite mulched when the rain came.

I staked out the rows and chopped sod, throwing the root clods on the hugelkultur pile (yep, it's still a work in process). Then I smoothed the dirt, used the dibbler to poke my holes at precise depth and distance and planted the corn, pole beans and pumpkins using the mantra "One for the coon, one for the crow, one for the worms and one to grow." I may have planted a little too light...

It was clouding up as I started mulching the rows with fresh straw. I had just put down about half a bale when the sky opened up and blessed my little Three Sisters garden with a wonderful soaking rain.

I love being a Sunday gardener.

My Three Sisters garden was blessed by a
beautiful afternoon rain.