Back To The Garden

The Garden

Lady Liberty Farms – Gallatin, TN 

Steps: Thousands

Nights: Many Days and Nights

Diesel Fuel and Site Costs: $0

Prior to jumping into RV most timing, I loved to garden. I spent a great deal of time preparing a 40′ x 4′ piece of ground getting it ready for our vegetable garden. The soil was very good to start but we amended that with a couple of years of composting that we had built up. The results were nothing but fantastic. We harvested the sweetest tomatoes, the best greens, Brussel sprouts, snap peas, and beans we had ever tasted. I’m sure we all stay this about our gardens :). I loved working the soil in this patch of ground. It became a daily habit to go out and tend it.

We practiced organic gardening. Controlling the surrounding runoff was difficult but we controlled that the best we knew how. That leads to some interesting fights with insects and such that just wanted a piece of every inch of the garden.

You’ll notice the hoop system I set up for the entire length of the garden. The local bird population got word that we had some very ripe and juicy tomatoes and such and began to peck away at our fruits. The rabbit population had the same idea when it came to our greens. I finally had to cover the entire garden in netting to keep them at bay.

When we bought the RV in 2016 the garden took a back seat to our traveling. We just could not plant and maintain the garden at the level that was necessary to promote good growth. I covered it with landscape fabric and mulch and kissed it goodbye. That all changed this year as we found ourselves confronted with COVID-19.

Our travel plans were canceled for the foreseeable future. The garden now became a great calming place for me and with the restrictions on travel, it was going to provide us once again with some great vegetables. I took up right where I had left off in the summer of 2016. The soil was in great condition and I got right back into the planting and tending routine.

Rain Water Collection

Apple Trees

We have a rather large plot of land here in TN. With that came my visions or maybe dreams of fruit trees and such. I started that journey with three very young saplings that I purchased from an orchard in GA. They arrived boxed about the size of a dozen flowers. They were about 3 ft in length and may have been a 1/2 inch in diameter. Now I didn’t know what to expect from this grower but this surely wasn’t it.

So off I headed to our back yard with my three saplings thinking I could be Johnny Apple seed. Frankly, I didn’t know a thing about growing apples in TN let alone what variety would do best in this climate. I did do a bit of reading and at least realized I needed a couple of different varieties to make this work. I ended up with two Honeycrisp trees and a Brabaum tree. I followed the directions regarding the planting and tended them over the years. The information I gathered told me that I might have apples in 5 years.

Fast forward five years and low and behold the trees began to flower. I could not have been happier to see a handful of flowers on all three trees. That was dashed early the next week when we were hit with a very hard freeze and you guessed it, the flowers died off. That did not discourage me but it was a setback. I nurtured them through that year, watering often and keeping them alive through a rather dry summer.  The winter turned out to be perfect for growing apples. There is a need for a certain amount of chill days over that period and we had them. 

2014 was looking pretty good for a good apple set. We had plenty of flowers on all three trees. I was excited to see them, the weather stayed mild during the bloom that spring. The only thing missing this year was the pollinators, bees. We had very few bees visit the trees during the bloom. This resulted in a light set of apples. Compounded by a dry growing season the apples that were there did not do so well. I noticed mold or growth on the leaves that I could not identify. Off I went to the TN agricultural extension for some advice. The wise guy who helped me indicated that the trees were suffering from red cedar blight. I asked what I could do to resolve the issue, he stated a “Chain Saw” and cut them down.

Needless to say, I was not happy with the response and set off to try and flight this cedar blight. I had some success in the early stages but it continued to come back. I was not going to cut down these trees that took me 7 years to get them to bloom. The fight continues today.  This year may have been the biggest flower set we have had since they started blooming. We were blessed with hundreds of bees from a couple of hives located in the area.

The story and fight to grow a good size Honeycrisp continues. I have plenty of time this year to refocus my attention on these trees. I’m sure I will fighting Cedar Blight but that will be what it is and we will be treated with an organic spray that keeps it slightly at bay.

More on the outcome as the year rolls along.

Lady Liberty Farms Previous Gardens

The current garden area has been in place for over 12 years. I choose this location due to its proximity to a stream that runs through the property and off to the right of the garden. Over the years, that stream has overrun its banks and deposited some very good topsoil in this area. I supplemented that with a blend of homebrew compost over the years. The results can be seen in a number of these photos.