July 12th – July 18th, Week 16
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
July 12th to July 18th, WEEK 16
The honeymoon stage of the garden is officially over. Forgive me if this post is a little more melancholy than usual. I miss the thriving June garden already.
Potato plants have fallen over, (because they have reached maturity) allowing sunlight to reach the soil that was previously shaded and weeds are taking over fast.
The onion tops have all fallen (because they have reached maturity) and I miss the texture and depth they added to the garden.
Brassicas and their huge, beautiful, blue green foliage have contracted soft rot and are dying and stinking up the garden. I usually allow the broccoli to go to bloom for the pollinators, but the soft rot has caused them to die before they got to bloom.
Raccoons got into our sweet corn (more on this later in this post).
What we harvested this week:
- 50 pounds of red beets (preserved by pickling and freezing) Watch the video here.
- Red raspberries, by the handful for snacking and for smoothies.
- Early red potatoes for fresh eating.
- Cucumbers, everyone is tired of cucumbers, so I am collecting them in a shopping bag in the refrigerator drawer until I have enough to do a batch of fermenting.
Other Garden Tasks:
- The Heat and humidity continued this week, with humidity levels ranging near 100% overnight and only dipping to 80% during the daytime. With those humidity levels and heat and little to no wind, the blight on the cucumbers and tomatoes gained some ground and I treated again with peroxide (1/2 cup 3% peroxide per gallon of water. Applied every 7-10 days). The cucumbers are still producing on their new growth, but the older growth is ugly and appears dead.
- During a walk to the garden one morning, I discovered that a racoon or 2 had come and tasted the sweet corn. About 6 stalks were down and their cobs exposed and half eaten. From experience I knew this was an emergency and needed immediate attention, at least before night fall again! because those 1 or 2 raccoons will bring all his relatives the next night for a good ole sweet corn party. It only takes a few racoons to destroy and ruin an entire crop of sweet corn. The boys and I set to work setting up an electric fence low to the ground but again the next night more sweet corn was down. The following night we added a flood light and a radio to play music all night. We haven’t lost any corn since adding the flood light and radio and are planning a good ole sweet corn party of our own for family dinner this week! (Find this in Saturday’s YouTube video)
Reflections
As the kids and I worked together on different garden and homestead projects this week I was reminded that even when things are going wrong, like racoons in the garden or blight on the tomatoes, or cows not staying where they belong. The things that leave a lasting impact are not sweet corn in the freezer or tomatoes in jars but the relationships that are built while we share the experiences.
Years ago, I learned that relationships are primarily built on positive shared experiences. The more positive shared experiences people have the stronger their relationship is, the closer they remain throughout their entire lives.
This changed the way I approached chores around the home and homestead. Instead of primarily seeing the work as things to check off the list I began viewing it opportunities to work together and build relationships.
Milk the cows
Moving rotational grazing
Weeding
Harvesting
Canning
Laundry
Dishes
It all became the tool for binding the family together. There was only one smallish problem that kept coming up again and again. Keeping the experience positive!
Relationships are also built on negative shared experiences, but these are not the kind of relationship that families are drawn back to because no one choses to repeat a negative experience more often than they need to.
I would love to say that the reason these experiences kept turning into negative experiences was because the children frustrated me, bickered and whined and complained until I lost my cool. But the truth is it was all me. It was my lack of staying emotionally regulated amidst normal pressures of parenting. And as usually happens, the more I tried to keep my cool and create positive experiences the more I failed.
When I finally remembered to take this issue to God in prayer, he gently remined me of what I had learned about babies and emotional regulation as a foster and adoptive mom.
Infants and toddlers (and older children too) do not have the development or skills to self-regulate their emotions. They depend on the proximity of caregivers whom they are bonded with to regulate their emotions. The calm breathing and heart rate of a mother (or caregiver whom they are bonded with) helps to not only calm a child but teaches them how to calm themselves. Simply staying in contact with a bonded caregiver is essential to an infant, toddler or young child’s survival and proper emotional development.
If I, as an adult was struggling to stay emotional regulated under the pressure of motherhood who was I to draw close to?
My Heavenly Father, that’s who! The more time I spent in prayer and His word the more bonded I become with my father and consequently the more my emotions and reactions can reflect that of the Father. The more I leaned into this relationship of my own the more emotionally regulated I became and the more positive shared experiences I was able to successfully create for our family.
Creating positive shared experienced through mundane everyday life is the greatest advice I could give you about supporting sibling and family relationships. The foundation of family bonds and relationships is not found in grand vacation memories (although these are great memories too) but in the nitty gritty everyday shared experiences that compile together to make a cement of sorts that binds families together for many generations!
