Garden Greetings from the Deep South
Back in May I published a series of emails from a few backyard vegetable gardeners who shared their passions and talents for producing home-grown fresh fruits and veggies.
Those gardens were located in Patzcuaro, Mexico, Northern Virginia, Teakettle, Belize, and Tennessee. Today’s report comes to us from another southern grower…
I just ran across your site, and vastly appreciate your insight, generosity and vast knowledge shared with fellow GARDEN enthusiasts!
New Home, Growing Garden Addiction
My name is Bobby, I’m a 43 year old ‘white dude’ in Decatur, Georgia, and I share many of your interests. Primarily though, that of a relatively new homeowner (I’ve owned my first home for two years now, 3rd veggie garden though, woo-hoo!) and possessed Garden Lover.
Ohhh the trials and tribulations of cultivating in the South! Heat and pests and critters and the list just goes on and on. We’re blessed to have an incredibly long growing season (it’s late June and I will be planting ‘late summer’ rows of beans and tomatoes July 4th weekend).
Plus I’ve put in a few sweet potatoes with hope that they’ll be flourishing by September. I’m not well versed in Fall and Winter crops yet (I get my green thumb from my Mom also, whom I describe as having an ‘Emerald’ thumb to everyone else!), but I’ve been branching out.
Nothing Can Stop a Determined Veggie Gardener
My first year literally a week after closing on my house, I put some boards up and created about a 15×20 raised bed garden, having no means of turning the notorious Georgia red clay but absolutely knowing I wanted to harvest something, ANYTHING to eat.
It was a LOT of hauling bags of dirt from Home Depot to finally fill it all in. This actually turned out to be a well earned blessing, as the next year (last year) the dirt I had worked so hard to import was the perfect enhancement when Dad came over to till the ground for me.
I discovered the magic of heirloom seeds, started every single one of the tomato seeds (16 varieties!), and I’ll be danged if nearly every one of them didn’t grow to be a beautiful plant.
Sharing the Joy and Blessings of a Good Tomato
I had literally 100 fledgling heirloom plants, so many I was giving them away at work, church, potluck group, my family reunion, you name it I showed up with a foot tall tomato plant in a cup waiting to be put in the ground!
Needless to say, my enthusiasm brought a wonderful taste of summer and my heritage to many last year, as I still have people telling me how great those tomatoes were… I feel like a proud parent almost!
I need to stop for tonight, but I’ll write again soon with updates for this year and some other stories of the trials and tribulations, but also the joy, Joy, JOY of harvesting. I’ve attached a few pix, hopefully they’ll come thru. Yours in dirt-digging, Bobby.
Hey Bobby, thanks so much for visiting the Veggie Gardening Tips website and for sharing your experiences and the photos of your garden. Hope things continue to grow well for you there in Georgia as the summer progresses.
I would love to have a growing season as long as yours and encourage you to experiment with a little fall vegetable gardening. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were veggies that you could grow in Decatur throughout the winter months!
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