On the Banks of Nettle Creek: Late August

It's hard to believe we've been back here on the farm four months already - a third of a year! We've seen most of spring and summer and I wish we'd been keeping a list of all the major projects we've tackled and conquered. I remember that August always brought a flood of garden produce and once again that has proven true. I've canned 24 quarts of beans and 36 quarts of tomatoes. The freezer is full of sweet corn and more is coming next week so that will have to be canned. There are bowls of tomatoes, cukes, squash and peppers on the kitchen counter waiting for me to fit them into the menu and quickly before they are past their prime. Kenji is trying out the many types of hot peppers we planted for him. None of us share his passion for hot, hotter and hottest so he has no competition for them.

When we had 2000 prairie plants put in around three sides of the house I had obviously not considered how much effort it would be to keep them watered and weeded! But God graciously sent rains so the watering wasn't needed, although the flip side of that is that the regular rains caused all the weed seeds to sprout. I've been weeding a section every few days and keeping slightly ahead of the weeds. When those 2000 little sprouts were put in it was really difficult to imagine that they would take off and cover all the ground. They were planted on June 10 and in just over two months they have done beautifully. There are a few bare spots where certain varieties are trying to make up their minds about thriving. The indigos aren't sure they like where we put them and the lupines gave up the ghost in protest. But for the most part I've been overwhelmed at how many have taken off and how many are blooming even this first year. I love the names of these plants - royal catchfly, rattlesnake master, Ohio spiderwort, prairie tickseed, prairie dropseed, little bluestem, wild geranium, wild petunia, Joe Pye weed, obedient plant, prairie clover, Culver's root and prairie milkweed. Many I've never seen before so it's like having a living herbarium growing around the house.

Many people prefer the neat orderliness of a traditional garden so my personal dream won't appeal to everyone. But I love the gentle chaos of prairie plants mixing and mingling, growing around and through each other. The grasses wave so gracefully and there are literally dozens of butterflies flitting around the blossoms every day. To me, it's beautiful.