Our garden has flooded, survived multiple attacks by pygmy goats, and been trampled by donkeys. But Mother Nature is resilient, and forgiving. Right now, it's Blue Time, that magical, fleeting moment just before night falls, and Dr. Big is putting up a fence. Because he knows the goats will squeeze under the fence and eat the bounty. Because he refuses to give up hope. Blogging is a lot like building a garden. You plant seeds and wait. You are excited to share squash and tomatoes with your friends--not in a boastful way, but to share the joy of watching a tiny kernel take root. Sometimes life calls you away, but your heart is where the wild things grow.
You can still enter the KitchenAid mixer giveaway. The winner will be announced Sunday. Check back for details about another giveaway.
Mr. Linky awaits your fabulous summer recipes:
Oh Michael. I do believe I would kill for that garden. I so miss our Hudson Valley home. My tiny little bounty here is being decimated by the deer, but still we prevail. We miss you- hope the book is going well
ReplyDeletexoxo Pattie and Allie
Haven't gardened like this in years and years, miss it for many reasons.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks like it will survive anything. It looks wonderful. Sorry about posting twice...........I didn't think it took:)
ReplyDeleteYou'd think my husband was giving BIRTH to tomatoes--he watches and tends like a mother to be :) I'm rooting for you and Dr. Big! I'll be back to check on the Kitchen Aid mixer on Sunday! :)
ReplyDeleteFinally I'm in the right time zone (visiting California at the moment) and my link isn't number fifty something. I'm disproportionately excited about that!! Your garden looks beautiful, by the way!
ReplyDeleteHow lucky you are to have your own goats, donkeys and a garden!! Sounds like you are living the good life :)
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of garden I dream about.
ReplyDeleteThank you for Foodie Friday.
I love your garden and will say a little prayer that it prevails!
ReplyDeleteSince we've moved back to the South and had our garden last season and starting now, I've gotten all sentimental about Thanksgiving and our elders...truly comprehending what a blessing it was to have a harvest AND understanding how sometimes God just decides that there will be no yield in a certain season, how dependent we still are in this modern age on weather...on hoping bugs or blight don't decimate the crop.
And I appreciate my grandparents soooooo much more!
Oh, and your last post made me LOL! I've been dieting/cutting carbs and I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!!!
Hugs,
Lana
Don't give up!! I know that you will get great things from what survive!
ReplyDeleteYour garden will pull through and by August it will amaze you. All is not lost. Trying to make strawberry soup right now. Might be on Foodie Fri. by tomorrow night. Got behind promoting my giveaway.
ReplyDeleteSherry
My parents had 1/2 acre garden when I grew up. We lived in Wisconsin and the soil was like butter. In the high desert where I live now, I grow herbs and tomatoes and feel lucky I can do that. Your garden looks great and you will have so much fun with it! Joni
ReplyDeleteHi, pretty lady...I just know your garden will survive and be very abundant. You just have the touch!! Everything you do turns out great...even train wrecks in the kitchen..:))
ReplyDeleteOh, Michael Lee! I was swept up in the magic of your words! And the beauty of the land. Yes, blogging and planting IS all about sharing the promise of the seed in a loving way!
ReplyDeletePlease come by and enter my very first giveaway. I would love you to join in!
Thanks for the beautiful imagery!
Yvonne
Michael,
ReplyDeleteLove your comparison of gardening and blogging. I love doing both too. Love planting vegetables and love writing and photographing for my blog. I hope your garden survives the goats and the donkeys and the floods!
Hi Michael Lee! I just had to come over and say hi! I haven't joined you for Foodie Fridays because I don't do much fancy cooking! But wanted you to know I'm still one of your biggest fans!
ReplyDeleteNow your garden looks like it's going to come back! Nothing like home grown veggies! :)
Hope you're dong well.
Be a sweetie,
Shelia ;)
Good luck with your garden! I love fresh veggies!
ReplyDeleteDonna
That is a HUGE garden, Michael! I do hope it grows well for you & that you get to reap a bountiful harvest. That way you can share all your cooking ideas & photos with US!! (I'm selfish, I know) LOL
ReplyDeleteWe finally got our 20+ tomato plants in the ground. Whew!
God is watering them nicely for me as I type. :-)
I loved your analogy of planting a garden to starting a blog. How very true about those first tentative postings (seedlings).
Look how your GARDEN (Blog) has grown!!
Thanks for doing the FF each week. I don't always have a good recipe to share but I sure enjoy visiting the participants.
fondly,
Rett
toasting to all your bounty to come~
ReplyDeleteHi Michael!
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks great. It doesn't look like we are going to be able to put out veggie garden in this year. It has been so flooded. We tried to dig a whole today on the higher ground area and it filled with water within 20 minutes! However, we talked to the church and they have an empty plot of land and they are going to let anyone who wants have a small garden come over and section a plot out and plant it. so, that is what we will be doing this weekend. Won't be a lot of canning done this year but, at least we have fresh veggies.
O my lord, Michael...I have 2 links..the 2nd is the right one. So sorry...
ReplyDeleteMAN !! I need to get with the program!!
Thanks so much for hosting! Your garden is amazing! Can't wait to see pictures of it in a couple months, along with the harvest!
ReplyDelete~Liz
Your garden looks like it will give you a great harvest! Now, it is just the wait and watering.
ReplyDeletewow your garden is huge, much larger than our 2 small raised beds. But I do agree, it is so much fun to plant a seed and watch it grow! Thanks for sharing! Sue
ReplyDeleteI am sure your garden will be just as amazing, gorgeous and HUGE as this fabulous blog! Can't wait to see the progress.
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me again and happy (Foodie) Friday.
Best wishes always,
Natasha.
I love the analogy of gardening and blogging. So true. Both are very rewarding, but they do take our time and care. Yes, sometimes life calls us away, but, nature is resilient! Wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteChristi @ A Southern Life
Hang in there with the garden. I'm sure it will make it, if it has made it this long. I would love to have a garden, period. Love & blessings from NC!
ReplyDeleteHope you can protect your garden - home grown is so much better. I don't get enough sun to grow veggies here, but try to keep a few flowers going.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful garden! Thanks for sharing, and for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI so enjoy your posts...and thanks for hosting Foodie Friday. Can't wait to see all the goodies you prepare with your soon to be veggies!
ReplyDeleteSharlotte
Gollum, if I had to garden right now, I'd have a stroke. I gardened (no help from husband or children) like you do for 45 years, always on acre plus plots. It wore me out having to do it all myself. Gardening in Georgia was the worst/hardest. But I do wish you luck. NOTHING can match the taste of an Heirloom tomato as it explodes in your mouth, that first patty pan squash, (eaten raw, of course). You know the program, shaker of salt and out to the patch. Also, include those portions of the honey and cream corn the racoons didn't get to first!
ReplyDeleteAll of a sudden, I'm not getting your newsletter any longer and it has never gone to my spam folder, since the beginning. Am I doomed not to receive it? Fondly Jackie A HUGE Fan
What a nice garden--it's so pretty!
ReplyDeleteAwesome garden! I can't grow anything! I have a tomato plant that I am rooting on though. Thanks for hosting every Friday, I enjoy going to different sites and seeing new things, thanks!
ReplyDeleteAny gardener knows that every year is a crap shoot. Will those precious plants take hold and grow or will this year beat us out.
ReplyDeleteIt can be so disheartening to know you have to wait a whole year to start over if it doesn't go well.
Gardeners have great faith.
Looks like we are on the same page again... Good ole fashion food straight from the garden!
ReplyDelete~Rainey~
A beautiful garden! What an inspiration to get outside to plant!
ReplyDelete<>< Concetta
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteI started following your blog awhile back, but this is my first time participating at DBG - I love your blog and hope to contribute regularly! Everything is so wonderful here. Thanks for all you do!
Hugs
Ramona
http://create-with-joy.blogspot.com
I just love that black fence! It is a testament to your gardening skills to come through so many hard knocks and still have green popping through... you go girl!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Michael, No pygmie goats here, but the bunnie rabbits have been shut out with fencing. Our bigger issue is the deer...I will be writing a post about that at some point. Thank you for the opportunity to link to this terrific event. No recipe today, just an introduction of why I am a foodie.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to let you know that your top photo last Friday really inspired me to make sure I had my garden flowers in the photo I took this week. I'm number 85 today.
ReplyDeleteYour garden looks great! In a few weeks it will be full and everything will be putting on. That's the wonderful thing about Mother Nature! Just a few days of warm sunshine and you'll have a bumper crop of everything to share...have a great weekend!
ReplyDeleteMichael, I love how you wrote and what you wrote about in your post. That you don't give up after the flood and all the work involved looms ahead; it strikes a cord. We don't get the fruits without the labor, it's true. I've had such a lot of things want to discourage me on our ten acres and sometimes I'll see five gopher damage mounds over pea gravel we just spent hours laying, or over mulch we just put down or a garden bed we've just spent a weekend digging out and lining with wire and then see a gopher got in. Reading this came at a good time for me. Thank you for sharing from your heart.
ReplyDeleteOh how I envy the space you have for your garden. My tiny one has washed out several times this spring because of our record setting rains. Sunshine will come eventually.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for the day to have a huge garden!
ReplyDeleteI love growing my own veggies. I just wish I had a larger, sunny spot like yours. What a great analogy to blogging. Wishing your garden sunshine and profusion.
ReplyDeleteWow...love our garden and that fence is georgous! I always love black arbors and pergolas when seen in magazines...no so stark as white and you don't have to maintain them like the white...lol btw...what are you doing with the "milk jugs" in the garden...what plants are they protecting/supporting? Not a big gardener so never seen this before...thanks, Roberta
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the garden. We had to replant ours after all the rain. Maybe there is some truth about waiting until tax day:)
ReplyDeleteMichael, what a beautiful way of comparing blogging to gardening. I hope the fence holds the animals back, mother nature holds her flooding back, so your seeds can grow and produce a bountiful harvest..hugs ~lynne~
ReplyDeleteAll the best on the garden! It looks wonderful and I love that fence. :-)
ReplyDeleteI linked up elegant and easy party puffs which can be made sweet (e.g., cream) or savory (e.g., chicken salad). Mine are made gluten free, but all-purpose flour can be used by those who do not need to eat gluten free.
Shirley
I long for a garden but it has to wait until next year. Gardening can be challenging..but I miss it none the less.
ReplyDeleteYours are so wonderfully large...good luck with the fence.. :)
Good luck with your garden. We have a small one, we have a fence up to keep the deer out. But the bunnies always find their way in.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Gwen
What a terrific garden!
ReplyDeletePat
www.critteralley.blogspot.com
Beautifully, said! Good luck with your garden...hope that fence works...silly goats!
ReplyDelete