Gardening

One of the things that Bucky was looking forward to during our year in Provence was having a productive vegetable garden. Through much sweat, a lot of planning and even a few tears, he has made that dream come true. Starting the garden in the fall was quite an effort (look back in the blog for the gruesome details of renting the moto-binuse!) and the plants he sowed suffered greatly because of a colder than usual winter and a number of unexpected (but lovely!) snowfalls. The onions and garlic he planted in the fall, however, did manage to survive the winter and gave Bucky a full-fledged harvest this month!

The other day, Kathleen and I assisted Bucky as he pulled the mature garlic from the ground. Kathleen was responsible for cleaning the dirt off of the bulb and I trimmed the roots. Bucky had researched online what the mature vegetable should look like and what he needed to do with it to prepare it for consumption. So, after following his instructions, Kathleen and I placed the garlic in a wonderful pile in the grass. We then moved on to the onions…Bucky had planted white and red onions and both had grown like gangbusters! We went through a similar process for harvesting the onions, but it took a bit longer since Kathleen and I paused often to ooh and aw over the fabulous purple color of the red onions! We stacked the onions in piles and then checked the status of the other vegetables….

The peppers are growing nicely and the zucchini plant is bursting with flowers and has already produced some vegetables. We have enjoyed a few zucchini so far, and anticipate (much to the chagrin of the girls!) much more in the near future. The lettuce is beautiful and we are constantly eating salads. Bucky has planted more lettuce so that we can hopefully have it throughout the summer. The tomatoes are growing, as well, and we are especially excited to enjoy them once they are ripened by the strong Provencal sun. We are still waiting to see if the aubergine and cucumbers will do their thing. We have lots of strawberries and we even have a peanut plant in the garden that Kathleen and Bucky started during a stage at the serre!

The garden really has been rewarding for the whole family, but especially for Bucky. He worked hard on that soil, nurtured the plants and has been committed to watering the garden daily. He is constantly adding to the compost pile, weeding around his growing vegetables, and figuring out how to battle bugs organically. Harvesting the garlic and onions was really exciting because we got to see Bucky’s hard work pay off. I am so proud of him and happy to reap the rewards of his labor! Gardening does Bucky good!


The spring graden in full bloom!


New signs courtesy of Kathleen...


Assessing the garlic...


Beware vampires...fresh garlic!


Red and white onions...


Kathleen taking the onions in to dry...


Bucky collecting the garlic to dry...


Garlic drying in the garage!