Welcome to the days of the Covid 19, or as Virginia says, "The Rona." It may not hyperbole to call this a historical crossroad approaching the magnitude of the Great Crash or Pearl Harbor. In the course of a month societal norms have been turned upside down. We are in the middle of a modern day Pandemic. To some it is the end of the world, to others it no big deal. I tend to vacillate between the two extremes and settle toward the pragmatic middle. Whatever comes of this Pandemic, I do not think life as we know it will be the same again. I may be wrong.
Virginia and I are both high risk candidates for the Rona. We have pretty much settled in at the home place for the duration since March 14th, not a big change for us. We have wandered out for pick up service at Walmart ~ what a blessing and convenience. The same goes for prescription curbside pick up from our local pharmacy (a big shout out to a local pharmacy chain in Alabama, Mills Pharmacy). Tractor Supply has announced curbside pickup as of March 31 so the chickens will not go hungry. Fortunately, I have been able to work from home. With that much time at the house, we have spent a good deal of time in the garden.
I had planned on scaling the garden back a bit this year. I found some information on organic amendments from Steve Solomon's book, The Intelligent Gardener. I had everything ready in mid February to apply to around 4000 square feet of garden. I was planning on a semi intensive approach to plant spacing. I have stuck to that plan for the most part; however, I have taken a very aggressive approach to the garden this year and added additional areas I had not planned on gardening originally. (so far I have not dug the drive way up yet). My garden is no longer a hobby garden. I am unsure of the supply of fruits and vegetables I will be able to get this year. In addition, I am not at all comfortable with food that other people have handled during this health crisis. So here is the first post with what is going on with the back garden. I have pretty much finished planting it in the last day or so. This may be overkill on our part; however, I do want to see what I can do when the garden is approached as a serious enterprise. We may have more than we know what to do with. So much the better. We can find good homes for the produce. If not we know a good local food pantry that can use it.
Without further ado, welcome to the 2020 Back "Rona" Garden.
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| Potato patch (back) and Tomato patch |
I had reduced the size of the potato patch by about a quarter this year. I regret that decision but it is a bit late in Alabama to play catch up. The two raised beds in front of the potatoes are my tomatoes. I reduced the size of their beds this year. Fortunately, having plenty of seed, I was able to add some more plants in a part of the yard I had not planned on gardening.
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| Grape Tomatoes planted in front left bed and the bed in front of my chair, |
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| Every Redneck needs a Watermelon patch and Cherry Tomatoes growing in an old tire! |
