Homemade Symphony: How Does my Garden Grow?

One of the many garden helpers.

Well, I am so excited to say that it grows! All my life, I have been convinced that rather than having a green thumb I might as well have no thumbs at all. I didn’t have much patience with growing things and anything I did try to grow died in short order. My past track record has truly discouraged me from trying a full blown vegetable garden although when I picture who I would love to be that beautiful, bountiful garden is always there along with foods preserved for the winter and a lovely fresh spread on the table.

This year, with much of Nathan’s prompting, footwork, and encouragement I have a garden! It is a trial run just so I can see things grow first hand and hopefully build a little confidence for future years. The beginning of this year was full to overflowing with work on the house we bought in December so when seeding time rolled around (and I still don’t know exactly when seeding time should be...) I was in no way motivated to start a new project, much less one that seemed like a mighty finicky baby that would need much TLC in order to survive. So I let seeding time pass and with a hint of sorrow planted one tray of seeds rather late. I might as well have had their memorial service then and there as that would have reflected the degree of my belief in their success. Sadly, I was right as they were seeds I had used in previous years and which had followed us across the country and spent a good deal of time living in a storage unit. Perhaps they were too old to grow or, the more likely option, there was user error. :-)

By the time it was apparent no wonderful seedlings were popping up Nate had worked hard to turn what used to be a swimming pool recess in the ground into a rich garden plot for me at the expense of his labor, time and many sheer pins for the rototiller. I had to plant something! There was no turning back and he was patiently reminding me that the planting window was going to close. I packed his promptings in my pocked and one day on my way home from the grocery store I did the unthinkable... I made an extra stop and hauled my now morning sick, tired self into a garden store on the side of the road. Thankfully they had a small assortment of vegetable plants ready for the ground complete with Brandywine Tomatoes, an heirloom variety that has been preserved since the 1800’s!

I hauled my small, promising garden home and by sheer willpower and with much needed help from the other hands in the home, planted my very first vegetable garden. I has been some weeks since and those plants that I put so neat and tidy in nice rows with marble borders have now grown into a near jungle from which we are beginning to reap actual food to eat!!!

One plant this Alaskan girl has never seen grown up close and personal is corn. I researched a non-genetically modified variety, 8-row bantam corn, and planted a few of those in square plots to help the germination potential. Honestly, I was not quite sure anything good could come from those severely dried kernels. A few days later little shoots came up and what a delight it has been to see the whole process unfold right in my back yard where I can inspect it daily and learn how corn truly grows. No longer will I have to induce car sickness straining to see exactly how those heavy ears of corn just appeared on the tall stalks along the road. :-)

I am like a proud Mommy, well I am that as regards all my children :-), but also a proud Mommy of the little plants I have watched grow from “plant infancy”. I love to take pictures of them and thought I would put a few here for fun and so any other Alaskan friends who have not gotten to see the corn process can enjoy it with me!

The eggplant process:

Eggplant flowers, one of my favorites!

The very beginnings of an eggplant.

A young eggplant, so bright!

The corn process:

A corn flower ready to wind-polinate the plant

The seeds naturally fall into the leaves. Some leaves have tube into which the pollen goes and produces an ear. This leaf does not but it was a good example of how the pollen falls and is collected.

This tube has been pollinated as evidenced by the purple color of the silks. The ear of corn will form beneath the silk and all the way down to the leaf below.

A young ear of corn. You can see the ear begins where my hand is on the plant and goes up to the silk. It only takes about a week from when the silks appear for the ear to reach this point.

This poor plant was completely blown over in the wind and its own flower never had opportunity to open or pollinate as it was all messed up from falling over and broken leaves. The neighboring plants pollinated it and you can see the ear of corn falling over a bit.