Tag Archives: patience

Patience is a Virtue (but a Challenge!)

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I finally was able to pick a BUNCH of veggies today. 15 pounds of summer squash, 5 pounds of green beans, alot of beets and greens, beautiful lettuce and a couple pounds of basil!

My hubby accused me of being an “impatient” gardener a couple of weeks ago. Honestly that is so true! And I am working on it… but fine tuning virtuous characteristics takes some time (there’s my impatience again!).

We planted late due to the rainy spring, one large garden was drown and killed and well… I still want to be harvesting like I did last year and on the same time frame.

So just like watching a pot of water and waiting for it to boil, I am watching and trying to hurry things along.

Today, I saw tomatoes turning red. The plants are gorgeous and have tons of tomatoes, green ones that is. But in the last couple of days red is appearing!

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My zucchini that was a goner (or so I thought) has made an amazing come back and is giving me lots of beautiful zucchini as a bumper crop!

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The squash that I planted very late in July, is thriving and has more yellow squash than I can eat! So freezing was the game today.

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Our garden that drown earlier in the year was the one with our beans. I had several varieties and none of them made it. I planted some bush beans in early August and I picked 5 pounds of them today!

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Lettuce and beets also filled my basket

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and we will be indulging in those tonight along with the pesto pizza which is courtesy of our basil that is happy and growing into bushes. I did have to fight our bees to get some today!

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I am so happy to be picking and eating from our gardens. It has been a wait this year! I am trying to be more patient and to be aware when my words and actions aren’t in line with that. The seasons have their own time frame. I need to enjoy and appreciate it.

I planted a cover crop on the washed out garden. It looks beautiful and is starting to come up.

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I think however that a winter cover crop is the ultimate in teaching me some patience as I won’t see the results of this until after the fall, after snow and after blooms in the spring begin. It will be some of our bee’s first food. We will all just wait until it is ready….

Happy Unleashing!

FGU

Patience Pays Off- The Tomatoes Are Red!

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When I blogged on patience in regards to my green tomatoes I did not know for certain that it was only patience that I was lacking in my lack of getting red tomatoes. Being a first time gardener I was still pretty convinced that it was me.  BUT patience has paid off.  My tomatoes are turning red!

We were gone for 3 days so I guess that did keep me from watching them and waiting for them to turn.  We returned to this:

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So we will be eating a lot of tomatoes—BLT’s, tomato sandwiches, greek pitas with tomatoes and cucumbers, roasted tomatoes, pasta (or course), grilled pizza, salad and on and on.  I canned a few yesterday just in case I don’t get anymore…. 🙂

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But I have a feeling that will not happen and I will be picking some more!  Oh happy day the tomatoes are in!

Farmgirl Patience

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Patience is not always a word that is associated with me. That is why simplifying and living out in the country has been and IS good for me.  Patience has been taught to me over the last year in a number of ways in our new home.  When I run out of something I just have to wait to get it on my next errand trip which is probably several days away rather than 15 minutes, mail takes a little longer from here to there, trips to anywhere are a number of miles rather than blocks, dryting clothes outside is rewarding, but slower than the dryer, etc.  I have totally loved all these changes and I definitely feel calmer on all counts.

BUT, my lovely tomatoes and red peppers have been hanging at green for weeks.  I find myself constantly looking at them, talking to them and PLEADING with them to all turn red.  I started to think something was wrong—too hot, too cold, too sunny, too shady, too many pests, too little compost…. what could it be???  I am gardening organically and have been quite confident in this choice even with the naysayers saying “it can be done around here.”  BUT with hundreds of veggies looking at me and staying green I began to wonder what I did wrong?

So GOOGLE to the rescue.  Believe it or not, when I googled “tomatoes not turning red” I got a TON of hits. Seems that  I am not the only one experiencing this phenomenon; misery loves company you know!  I read and read and read.  All the blogs, forums and articles brought me to my issue…..

LACK OF PATIENCE!

Yep, patience.  I need to be patient.  Some varieties take 60 plus days to turn red after the blossom is fertilized.  It is not unusual at all for tomatoes to turn in September even.  AND I found out our temperatures of low 80’s are perfect for our tomato plants. WHEW!!!!  Ok, so now I feel better; the only err in my gardening my tomatoes seems to be with me—patience!  Yep.  Another lesson and a happy one.  I will patiently await the onset of lots of red tomatoes and peppers.  In the meantime, I will enjoy the few that I am getting now.

Patience… how about you?  What challenges your patience?