Garden Surprise....Wait Don't Eat My Plants

My garden planning began a few months ago when my mama and I sat down to map out this years garden.

I opened my planner book marking down when to plant squash, beans and my favorite pumpkins. I extended my garden to include a mini pumpkin patch approximately 20x20 feet. Not nearly big enough for all the pumpkins I wanted to plant, but it works for now. My husband hauled over several loads of manure for me to mix in with the soil to prepare to plant my pumpkins. I was in heaven and couldn't wait to see all the pumpkins.  After cleaning the weeds out of my greenhouse to my surprise my died strawberry plants seeds somehow seeded themselves. Now I have strawberries growing. I instantly thought I was ahead of the game I had plants growing and hadn't even planted them. In my greenhouse I planted onions, lettuce, radishes and tomatoes. Those all are so easy to grow. I almost felt like a Master Gardner when I saw the golf ball sized radishes peeking through the dirt.

I recently ordered herbs such as Amelia Oleracea which can be used to cure toothaches or so I read, Valerian a perennial with beautiful flowers that can be used to help with anxiety and Wormwood herb. I don't recall why I bought the Wormwood seeds. These were all a late night Amazon purchases, when I thought I had solved all worlds ailments. Just eat an herb, it's all natural.

I mean for years I had worked in the medical field from the time I was 17 years old. Although, I had only worked in clerical positions I worked for a general surgeon and an outpatient surgical facility where I learned plenty about colonoscopies, hernia repairs, as well as other procedures. I was even invited to sit in on a couple of procedures. I was amazed and had no idea that a colonscopy involved a tube with a camera that would be inserted into someone's tooshie. I know this is totally off subject but relevant to knowing my previous experience with medicine. Anyhow, all those years of working with physician's I feel I had a pretty good sense of being an at home care taker to my family. These days I look to a more holistic approach to solving my families medical conditions. To my dismay, when my seed packets arrived and I told my son what they were he said "Mom you're going to make me chew on a flower if I get a headache? No way!" With those words and the awkward look on his face I didn't feel like he had faith in my new approach to medicine.

Back to my big garden planning and planting I was surely on my way to growing large crops that would feed my family and friends. To help conserve water I put in a water system with bubblers and a timer. I marveled at the daily growth, walking around in my garden checking on it frequently. Always making sure to shut the garden gate behind me when I'd leave the garden. I mean we live on a cattle ranch. At any given time we have cows and their calves just wandering around grazing on whatever they can find. Most of the time I pull flakes off the stacks of hay and feed them to the cows, as a treat. As far as I was concerned the cows were my friends. Until, one afternoon we were rushing out the door to get to town to attend an event. We ended staying out later than I thought we would. When I got home after the kids went to bed I flopped into my bed. The next morning I began my routine just as always feeding the chickens, ducks, watering the pigs and then heading to my goat pen. Just then I passed my garden and had to take a double look. I could see what used to be a huge swiss chard plants full of yellow and red stems and beautiful green leaves was now nothing but some tiny naked twigs. I couldn't believe my eyes. I ran over to the garden to discover the gate was open. The cattle had trampled through my garden. "What the heck is going on?" I said to myself. My garden was no longer a garden. I was heartbroken. My brussel sprouts had not one single leaf or brussel sprout left on the plants. My potato plants were ripped out of the ground and my greenhouse had looked like a robber went in through the window. It was torn to shreds. In my mind and probably out loud I yelled "the cows crawled into my greenhouse through the window!

What kind of wild animals are living on our ranch!" Needless to say not much was left in my greenhouse, but they didn't eat my strawberry or tomato plants. Yay at least I still have strawberries! Time to replant.