August 2nd – August 8th, Week 19
RuthAnn’s Weekly Garden Diary
Documenting Progress and Reflections in the Garden
My attempt to document the planting, growth, harvesting, and preserving of our family’s 8000 square feet of garden.
Northeast Iowa Gardening in growing zone 4
Last frost date May15, First frost date September 15
August 2nd to August 8th, WEEK 19
The Apples hang heavy on the branches, the macintosh are turning more vivid and less tart each day.
We have experienced a few more days with temperatures in the mid and upper 80s for which we are extremely thankful for! The tomatoes need more heat to ripen.
What we harvested this week:
- 250 ears of sweet corn, Serendipity variety, blanched, cut off the cob and frozen for winter meals. (WATCH THE VIDEO HERE)
- A handful of green beans, Jade variety, for fresh eating plus 4 quarts in the freezer.
- 4 quarts of raspberries, some for fresh eating and the rest flash freezing for winter smoothies.
- 30 pounds of tomatoes, washed, cored and put into the freezer to turn into ketchup or BBQ sauce later.
- Calendula flowers, drying for infusions and lotion making.
- A few peppers for cooking needs
Other Garden Tasks:
Sweet corn stalks have been getting cut down, 2 rows a day, a food for the pigs. A great job for the boys and their machete.
We have been getting plenty of rain which means the grass keeps growing, we keep collecting clippings and using them to cover the soil. Covering the bare soil where crops have been removed is the focus for august!
The buckwheat that we planted last week has sprouted beautifully and is doing a fine job at creating a shade canopy and covering the soil.
My top reasons for covering bare soil.
- Water management: locks in moisture, protects from erosion, prevents nutrient leaching
- Weed and pest suppression; Blocking the sunlight prevents weed seeds from germination. Certain cover crops and organic matter can break the life cycle of destructive, soil born pests.
- Soil health: protects the soil microbiome from excess heat and water, organic matter feeds the soil microbiome.
As you can imagine, covering 8000 square feet of garden soil is no small task! In previous summers I did the best I could and then just left the larger areas where row crops were bare over winter. This year I am hoping to get some buckwheat planted where the corn is removed.
Reflections
This is where the rubber meets the road for me. If you know me, you know that I struggle with follow through when it comes to harvesting and preserving. I am passionate about growing things and once the beauty of the garden wanes I lose interest and the fruit of my labors is in danger of going to waste. The harvesting and preserving always feels like a burden to me.
I’m trying out a new dialogue with myself about harvesting season. Instead of scolding, and shaming myself into preserving the harvest I am reminding myself,
‘Be a good steward of the Harvest!’
‘Honor God by preserving the nutrition His earth has grown’
As I have had this inner dialogue, I have often turned the conversation into a prayer.
“Lord, help me to honor you with this harvest by preserving the nutrition and not allowing it to go to waste.”
As usual, with my stubborn nature, when I finally turn to God, my simple struggle with follow-through in the garden becomes a place where spiritual victories can grow. Just as I tend the soil in my garden, bringing prayer and God’s presence to the rocky parts (my character flaws) of my heart helps create the kind of spiritual ground where fruitful growth can happen.
By shaming and scolding myself into preserving the harvest I was relentlessly plucking weeds, (character flaws) from the bare soil of my heart. It looked good for a few days until the weeds sprang back, and I was back to scolding and shaming myself with no real, lasting change taking place. Eventually becoming exhausted from the battle, I might be influenced by the enemy to just accept and even celebrate this character flaw finding others with a similar flaw to be my friends and help me become more comfortable with the flaw instead of seeking change and allowing friendships that might bring convictions.
By simply covering the bare, weed prone soil of my heart with prayer, I transform my own human nature by the Character of God and that bare, rocky soil is turned into fruitful soil.
19 Responses
I love your relationship with God and accepting your flaws. You are probably the worse judge of them. I was told once by a chaplain, Who are you to judge yourself, that’s God’s work.
As I read about preserving what God has provided, my spirit dropped. I have made plenty of pickles and the cucumbers just love this NE Iowa weather! Oh well, I bet the chickens will like them, too.
Blessings!
Hi Ruthanne:
In the past. I’ve struggled with weed procrastination and preservation. More so with perserving.🙃
This year my husband and my self went on a 4 month journey. Leading into the August month. We are returning home within the next month.
I’m now sad that my garden didn’t get planted this year. I won’t have a bounty in storage, this year.
That being said. I’m looking forward to next year’s procrastination. 🥰I. Truly love the feeling I get planning, preparing and having my coffee in the garden next year.
Thank you for sharing your family with all of us. You’re an inspiration in my life. You’ve helped also with restoring my faith in the lord. 🙏🏻I pray for you and all your teachings. Thank you
Sincerely,
Cindy
“As are thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deut 33:25)
No matter how long our day is, HE gives us enough strength to make it through. We always seem to make it to our pillow, and the good news is “HIS mercies are new every morning”(Lamentations 3:21-26), and we get to start fresh! You are a delight! May GOD continue to bless your endeavors as you live for HIM!
All is Grace (a gift),
Laura Wilhite
I have felt like The Little Red Hen, too. My two sons grew up, left home and married. They asked, Mom, how did you ever do it? In my many hours of need (of help) I asked God Almighty to reach out, help me have physical strength above my own, a greater purpose, and a higher intellect to avoid wasting time and ability to preserve our food to be a good steward of our money. Hours of laundry, hanging clothes outside to dry, waxing floors, attending college, working a full time job, and painting the house kept me younger looking and healthier than most other 70 year old women. God has truly blessed me. Ruthanne, and God will bless you, too. Remember God works in his own time, not ours, and He will help you, and may even help your family to be more enthusiastic helpers. If not, God may work on them later, as he is working on my grown sons now. Lessons learned later are harder lessons. May God Bless Little Red Hen Ruthann, too!
Thank you for your posts! Thank you for letting God use you!
So timely and so well worded. I too have begun to pray about my heart attitude about things that need to be done. I don’t have a garden myself, but I have very good friends who share their bounty with me so I can enjoy it in the winter. My days get full and I see the produce staring at me 🙂 I’m so glad we have a heavenly Father who helps us get back on track and remember why we are doing what we are doing and who it is that provides.
I love this blog! I, too, struggle with follow through with the harvest and other areas of my life. Thank you for always being real with us. A very good word to me today.
This has helped me tremendously….i too do the shame game, but now i am turning it to growing in my prayers and being thankful for a bounty from our father to feed us through winter and or tough time. Blessings not to have to pay for so much at store. Thank you for helping me
Thank you for your wise words Ruthann, and for sharing your journey of amending the soil of your heart. It has been such an inspiration to me. God bless you as you continue preserving the harvest!
Amen & AMEN!!!
Amen! He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or imagine. 🧡🧡🧡
RuthAnn, I needed to read this today! Thank you for sharing. God bless you and your family.
Beautiful!
I needed to hear this today. Time for me to cover the weeds in my heart with God’s character and start talking to Him to help me with that. Thank you. 🥰
I love your reflection section. I too would prefer to find others with similar character flaws to commiserate with, rather than asking God to amend the soil in that part of my heart. Thank you!
Love, love, love this perspective and prayer. Thank you for the post. <3
Oh my goodness, Ruth Ann! What a wonderful sermon and I’m sure I was meant to read it today!
What a beautiful reflection! Instead of scolding myself, I am going to try your way of transforming my heart.
Ruth Ann you are such a influence. I love the grass of God you carry and with the children a beautiful job well done. I didn’t get to do a garden this year but I did do 30 tomatoe plants. We are in such a drought that I haven’t even cut the grass in like a month and a half. Thank you for all that you share. Melissa Brunmeier