Gardening

Gardening

I've done at least some gardening in three separate regions: northern Ohio, southern Florida, and northern Georgia. This is where I write about my experiences, successes and failures in attempting to coax various crops out of the ground.

Gorgeous Tree at the end of our Street

  • Posted on: 6 November 2013
  • By: Jay Oyster

The tree at the end of our street in early NovemberLiving in Martin's Landing here North of Atlanta, we are surrounded by a wonderful southern deciduous forest. This has been the best part about moving up from Florida last year.  Last Fall, the autumn leaves came and went so quickly . . . I believe we had a dramatic windstorm right after the full colors came on, and it stripped most of the leaves off the trees within a couple of days. Still, I had time last year to notice that the maple at the end of our street is a stunning golden color that is gorgeous for a couple of weeks in the Fall. This past weekend, I actually walked down the street just to snap a couple of pictures of it.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. And as is required of our overly sardonic age, I'm now hearing people bemoaning all of the worship of the beauty of this time of year. It's been done too much, you see. Or so I hear from the hipsters. My attitude about that is quite simple . . . bollocks.  Fall *is* the best time of the year. The blustery winds, the cooling weather, the falling leaves, smells and tastes of the harvest season, the return of the holidays, the joy of learning a new thing as school starts again, the scudding clouds in front of a gorgeous full moon on a chilly night walk down a street sidewalk strewn with crunchy multi-colored leaves, all smelling of freshness and wet oak.

First Georgia garden

  • Posted on: 26 May 2013
  • By: Jay Oyster

I planted my first Georgia vegetable garden this past week. I turned a small plot just to the east side of our rental house in Roswell, using shovel, spade and garden fork. The soil is clay and dense and looks like it hasn't been disturbed in decades, despite the landlord swearing that she amended it and gardened on it often over recent years. My plot is no more than 6' x 20' in size.

I planted four tomato plants (beefsteak), six tomato plants, a row of carrots, two rows of green beans, and two rows of corn.  We'll see how this whole southern gardening thing  works out.