It's a GOODe Life: My Brown Thumb Solution

As most of you know, I grew up on a farm and pride myself in having those farm grown traits of "hard work and know how".

That could be why my brown thumbs and resulting browner vegetable garden year after year frustrate the tar out of me! This especially bums me out since I am sooo into once a month cooking (OAMC) --better known as FREEZE-O-RAMA 'round these parts--and I'd love to add some canning to the mix.

But no, this former farm girl can't manage to keep her garden rows straight, nor her veggies healthy.

Now, in my defense, we raised cattle and hay... I can tend to bottle-fed calves and  carry my weight pitchin' hay bales-- but gardening... oh gardening... it alludes me : /

So therein is my problem. I gots all these great new cookbooks on canning an preserving that I am just itchin' to use-- but I lack the skillz to get the core ingredients to grow!

Now, I can make me some mean garden signage, but that doesn't really fill my plate--does it?

So, this year I went into problem solving mode and figured out a way to have my garden and eat it too ;) Then it hit me-- I would go to a couple experts I knew and see if they couldn't save me from the weeds and pests that usually destroy my bounty.

That's right folks, I asked a farmer. Luckily I know a few :) and even have a few in the family-- so they won't make too much fun of my lack of an inner gardener.

This year we will have a GOODe garden with Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary--who just happen to be corn and soybean farmers.

Ya see, I have never been too GOODe at figuring out fertilizers and pesticides when it comes to my food. So, when I garden at home I tend to either over do it and worry myself to death about it or under do it and watch the pests devour my hard work down to nothin'.

So havin' Uncle Tom helping us manage all that is a big sigh of relief for this mama. I'll stick to graphic design and facilitation as a career ;) 

He does it for his crops everyday that go to feed both his family, animals and ultimately the world... so I figure he might know a thing or two about these things.

We had so much fun! Turns out gardening is MUCH easier when you are doing it with folks who know what the heck they are doing... Just sayin'

We learned that Uncle Tom is a stickler for straight rows...

Aunt Mary is gonna teach this gal how to can this summer too! I have always been so jealous of her cupboards and I can't wait until I get to fill mine up too :).

Miss Add had a ball planting the garden as well. Aunt Mary got her out her own gardening tools!

After things were planted Miss Add and Uncle Tom played around with his glasses...

Miss Add has such a special relationship with all her uncles :) 

She is truly one blessed kiddo!

Before headin' out to the field to plant some soybeans, Uncle Tom explained to Add how the planter worked.

The day reminded me so much of when I would plant a garden with my grandma as a kid. I sure hope Add pays more attention than I did ;)