In The Garden

When I initially started this blog back in 2008 it was named The Suburban Farmer because we were living in an older neighborhood on a half acre lot. Through some very sound reasoning on my dear sons part we adopted a total of 10 chickens and started our first garden. Now that we're living on 200 acres we haven't taken the time to build a coop, but we do have a small (25X50 foot) garden. Since we no longer live in the suburbs and I like rant about GMO's, systemic pesticides, and recycling I changed the name of my blog and deleted those early post. I am, however, proud to say that we are getting two, four week old, chicks tomorrow from a friend of a friend that made a impulse buy. The garden is another story altogether.


I hate to admit that I let my garden run a muck over the winter months (not that we actually had a winter here in the deep south), but alas it was a hot, hot mess when I last laid eyes upon it. I could have raised Fall veggies all winter long or at least maintained some sort of order, but I did not. I threw my hands up in the air, walked into my air conditioned house in mid-August, closed the door and read a bunch of really good books when I wasn't catching up on my Netflix queue.



You see, last summer we had an organic garden. A garden where we homeschoolers marveled at the aphids and ants symbiotic relationship (I even included a YouTube video I found so you could enjoy watching someones hard work get destroyed by those destructive pest). This is the garden where the deer, that my husband didn't kill, ate my watermelons and pumpkin vines. A garden where the lawn mowers and weed eaters all broke in protest. In other words, a garden where the bugs and the weeds flourished.

By August the temps were near 100 (not to mention the 70% humidity) so I surrendered, and now I'm having to play catch up and get the wilderness under control. If I am to be completely honestly, and I do believe in full disclosure, I've only put in 5 to 6 hours of weeding, tilling, and shopping in on this disastrous endeavor. I'm also sporting a nice bun on my leg from an afternoon of organic weed control (IE., burning the little devils), several bruises, and a nasty blister on my thumb.

With a great deal of my husbands help lighting the torch and manhandling the tiller, our garden is almost ready to embark on another season of growing corn, tomatoes, okra, beans, watermelon, squash, cucumbers, and whatever else we can think of to plant. However, I will not make any promises to having a *100% organic garden this year. Beware Ants, Aphids, earwigs, mealy bugs, slugs, and any other pest that dare eat MY vegetables, I will keeeeeelllllllll you!


*I will not use any unnecessary or systemic pesticides.

GMO VS Organic; which do you want to eat?

Whether you have a garden in your backyard, buy your produce at the local farmer's market or purchase it at a superstore, organic food is better for the health of your family. Many years ago all of our crops were grown without the assistance of genetic engineers; that is not so now. Conventional farming today consists of any agriculture that demands high yields. This requires the use of genetically modified seeds, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

There are advantages and disadvantages to genetically modified organisms (GMO). Plants that have been modified by genetic engineers are drought resistant, tolerant to herbicides, have a tolerance to the cold, and are resistant to many diseases. There by providing an abundance of food at an affordable price. However,these crops do not contain adequate amounts of all necessary nutrients to prevent malnutrition. In fact these plants are causing allergies and cancers in humans yet we continue to accept and consume them on a daily basis. If you don't believe me read this article about the effects of rats eating genetically modified potatoes.

Genetically modified foods are not only grown for our consumption, but for the consumption of animals. Once the animal eats the GMO feed it transfers foreign DNA into that animal which is then passed on to any humans consuming that beef, pork, or poultry. Even more disturbing, is that the FDA is considering approving the first genetically modified animal for human consumption. If you don’t want to eat genetically modified salmon, you can let your voice be heard here.

I understand that not everyone can grow a self sustaining garden in their back yard, but we can all make well educated decisions when shopping. We have the greatest influence on what is being offered. Europeans have shunned GMO’s. If we refuse to accept foods that have been genetically altered, the farming industry will stop giving into the genetic engineers and biotech companies. One of the ways to make your voice heard is to join the True Food Network. You can also reading labels, buying only organic meat and produce, and eating foods that are in season.