Lil's Garden

I am still dealing with the grief of unintentionally poisoning my own garden. We are making plans to convert the garden to a demonstration grass garden, with the hope of harvesting viable seeds to sow back into the prairie. The grasses should not be affected by the herbicide.  When we returned from our trip to Lake Tahoe to lead a retreat on Experiencing Resurrection Through Nature, we found a few things flourishing a bit in the garden. I harvested some kale, Crawford lettuce, green onions, and a little bowl of blackberries. So perhaps all is not lost.  I did a biological assay on the soil in the garden and soil with our own homegrown compost. The difference is remarkable. We will begin again. It's not too late to plant some summer vegetables, I think. Perhaps we will buy a few tomato plants from a nursery. We're very thankful for the lovely showers.  

I have a sad story to tell about Lil’s Garden. After a disastrous year of gardening last year, we were determined to make every effort towards a successful garden this year. We drew a garden plan, reformed the raised beds, made a special trip to David’s Seeds to purchase seeds, grew 80 tomato plants and other things from seeds, and set up trellises for the tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers.  To enhance our soil, we got three truckloads of manure compost from a neighbor who was mucking out her barn after 10 years. We worked the compost into the beds with the tiller. We planted the plants and sowed the seeds and waited. Many of the seeds didn’t germinate.  The potatoes were very slow to come up, and when they did the leaves were cupped and curly. They just didn’t look right. I got on the internet to diagnose the problem. It appeared that the manure compost may have contained herbicide. I contacted our rancher friend and asked if they had sprayed herbicide on their pastures. She sai...