Let's Catch Up!

I know it has been a long time and so much has happened.  Spring planting went well.  Our lettuce bed was spectacular!! Black Footed Simpson, Buttercrunch, Red Romaine, Winter Density and Tat Soi made for a wonderful salad mix.  Made believers out of us! The lettuce was so good; I refused to put store bought salad dressing on it! I just cannot bring myself to buy lettuce in the bag again. 

Our tomatoes were , hummmm, just OK.  We Had Ed Brogdon, of Back to Eden, help us out.  He let us know that we did not have enough compost so our tomatoes were mal-nourished, the yield was scant.  The Sun Gold Cherry tomatoes were somewhat prolific and we had a few Cherokee Purples and Green Zebra’s.  The ones we had were delicious and all were good enough to plant again next year!

We don’t want to talk about the squash.  After having beautiful, lush green plants with bright yellow blossoms, the squash began to turn yellow and wilt.  We fell prey to the Squash Borer.  That is a nasty little varmint that literally sucks the life out of the plant.  It seemed they between the Squash Borer and the Squash Bug, none of the gardeners had a decent squash crop.  We will either plant very early next year or not at all. 

The white and green Cucumbers were wonderful, again the yield was off due to poorly augmented soil, but this was a learning experience for us.  

None of the beans did well, but that will not deter us from planting again next year.

 Ed put us in touch with the Bright Morningstar Horse Ranch in Blythewood, SC.  Ranch manager, James Smith arranged for us to scoop some poop!  On August 6, Gordon’s Gardeners went out to the right Morningstar Ranch in Blythewood, SC and we up three pickup trucks full of poop to augment our soil for our fall planting.  We can’t thank Ed, James and the Bright Morningstar Ranch enough!

We loaded six beds with our bounty.  Three weeks later, the Okra plants had grown at least two feet and the scrawny little basil plant is a bush.  The African Blue Basil covers the entire bed!  We are so excited for the fall planting!  

Our partnership with Azeez Mustafa, the first and largest African American organic farm in the state of South Carolina had given us some creds!   We are now producing members of SCF Organic Farms, a cooperative of farms based in Sumter SC.   We look to be certified Organic before the end of the year.