Late Summer

It’s late summer here in north Georgia, not that you would know it from the weather. I’m told that it has been an unusually cool summer. The early morning temperature is consistently in the 60s, and the highs are in the upper 80s. One morning it was 48 degrees. I can get used to this.

Speaking of natural phenomenon, I’ve experienced my first earthquake. Actually, I didn’t experience it because I was asleep but Meredith and Mike did. They described a loud noise somewhat like thunder and said the house shook. Meredith thought it was a thunderclap or an explosion but Mike called it right as an earthquake.

It was under 3.0 on the Richter scale so it was not a very large one. I recall talking to two University of Georgia geologists earlier in the year who said that Georgia is a seismologically active state with multiple small quakes a day. So I guess that means I’ve traded hurricanes for earthquakes—not that I’m really worried about it. I’m mainly pissed that I missed out on an earthquake. It is one of those natural phenomena that I want to witness in this life. Maybe next time I’ll be awake.

One thing I’m pleased about is my garden. For a first-time north Georgia garden it has been very productive and in some cases over-productive. The scary part is that I only planted half the 6000 square feet that I laid out, I don’t think I have the soil pH quite right and I know that I have not added enough organic matter to the soil.

We have harvested well over 50 pounds of tomatoes. Because the tomato plants all seemed to ripen at once, Meredith has canned a lot of tomato sauce. I have a feeling that this winter I’ll be eating a lot of Italian cuisine.

I only planted one row of cabbage but it was enough to make a five gallon container of sauerkraut and seemingly endless bowls of cole slaw. There’s something about a row of mature cabbage that is very satisfying to a gardener. It makes me feel earthy or maybe Eastern European. I get this urge to put on big boots and peasant clothing, stand in the mud and play traditional folk songs on some weird stringed instrument.

For my fall garden I’m planting a couple of rows of cabbage. I want to make gallons of sauerkraut for winter. Nothing speaks of more of the organic life than sitting in your warm and snug cabin on a cold winter day with a case of the sauerkraut farts.

It’s a toss-up between the corn and the string beans as which is the more productive vegetable. We’ve harvested, eaten and frozen pounds of green beans. They are, apparently, the gift that keeps on giving. 

That being said, this is the last year I’ll plant bush green beans. My back can’t take bending over to pick bush green beans. I can do things standing up or laying down. Any position in between is out of the question. So next year I will plant pole beans. You can harvest them standing up.

As for the corn, I planted four 30-foot rows of sweet corn. I did not realize how many ears of corn that would produce. I’ve got so much sweet corn that I’ve been giving it away, and Meredith has frozen a ton of it. Next year I think I’ll plant the same amount of corn or even more, but in successive plantings so it does not become ripe all at the same time.

Corn is another one of those plants that make you feel like you’re a real farmer. My corn plants are well over my head. Almost every evening after dinner I go to the garden just to walk down the rows of corn to get that Iowa feeling. I’m waiting for Shoeless Joe to step from the corn rows.

I have no clue what I’m going to do with all those corn stalks once I’ve harvested the corn. Meredith wants some to make Halloween decorations. That still leaves about 500 pounds of biomass to dispose of.

Finally, at long last, my okra plants are starting to reach their stride. I have one 30-foot row of okra. In a week or so I anticipate that I’ll be picking at least 10 to 20 okra pods a day from the plants. As you have probably figured by now, I either underestimated how productive my plants would be or overestimated how much we can consume. What the hell am I going to do with that much okra? I figure I’ll be able to slime the north half of the county before summer is over.

I’m actually impressed with how productive a relatively small patch of dirt can be. My garden is about 60 by 100 feet, and I think it’s possible to grow at least half the amount of vegetables that two people can eat in one year in that space. I find that amazing. I guess that makes me a garden nerd.