Author: Nancy Landis

Companion gardening is a theory that planting different plants together can be beneficial for better yields, pest control, and making the most of your garden space. Some plants can also hinder the growth of certain ones.  Different websites sometimes differ as to what plants and herbs are beneficial to one another.  These beautiful radishes are a result of randomly sown seeds next to the cucumbers.  I had read that radishes are one of the plants that might be a deterrent against cucumber beetles.  I don’t know how it works exactly because the radishes are ready to be harvested now and the cucumber plants are still growing.  Perhaps as the radish plant matures and produce a flower, the beetles might be attracted to the flowers.  I also planted dill to help attract beneficial predators.  Dill leaves may also be scattered around squash plants to repel the squash beetle.  The cucumbers have lots of companions this year!

There are three other plants in the photo with the cucumbers.  In the foreground is dill with a yellow flower.  ( These flowers  are nice to put into a jar of dill pickles.)  Next to it are some of the radish plants.  The cucumbers are the lowest to the ground and are just starting to vine.  In back of them I planted six foot sunflowers.  My thought is that they can climb up the stalks of the tall sunflowers.  I think I might have to train them to do that!  The weed grass in the very back needs to be deleted!  I wish I could do it with the touch of the delete button..Lol!

• Don’t we all need one another in this life to give each other encouragement and strength?
• Romans 12:15 says we are to rejoice with those that rejoice and weep with those that weep.  In either of those situations, I want to share it with someone.  When a loved one has died, seeing familiar faces is a comfort during that time of sorrow.  I also love to share the exciting news of a new grandchild that has been born.
• In Galatians 6:2 we are to bear one another’s burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.  We are to pray for one another.
• We are to be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18 I believe that is for our families, friends, and those we don’t know who are brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering for the name of Jesus.
• Lastly, we are to consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.  This is interesting to consider how we do that.  We are not to neglect meeting with one another but encourage each other as the day of his coming back again is drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25.  
• Please add any thoughts that come to your mind of how we are to be companions together in this life.

 

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I know it has been far too long since I have written a post.  I started two but never finished them…that seems to happen to me more often than not!  June has arrived and it is strawberry season in southeastern Pennsylvania.  It is the long, awaited time for those sweet, local strawberries.  Florida and California berries are big and red but once you have tasted a fresh berry you know which is the winner!   Two years ago I decided it was time to plant a strawberry patch again.  It had been years since I had grown berries because they often became weedy patches.  For several years my children grew them for 4-H projects, which was great, since I received fresh berries with little effort.  My strawberry patch this year is relatively weed free. The difference this time is that I put newspaper and straw around the plants which is very effective with minimal weeding.  Another advantage to mulching with straw is a soft, clean place to kneel on while picking.

We are in the second week of harvesting.  We, means family members who help pick the berries.  That way I have someone to talk with while picking and they can be blessed with them.  If I add some grandchildren to the picking party it becomes really interesting!  Remember the book, Blueberries for Sal?  Instead of Blueberry Sal we had Strawberry Boy.  Fourteen month old Benaiah raided the bowls and was very unhappy when he was stopped!  The 4 and 5 year olds were great strawberry pickers but they also wanted me to put the berries I picked in their bowls!  It was a bit distracting as they moved here and there over the patch.  But it was delightful!

What have I done with the berries?  Strawberry pies, jam, freezing them in various ways and strawberry muffins.  They were delicious.  It was like eating strawberry jam inside a muffin.  Here is a link for the muffins from Once Upon a Chef http://www.onceuponachef.com/2015/05/strawberry-muffins.html

For the strawberry jam I have discovered the Ball brand of RealFruit Pectin.  It is very convenient and simple.  I like to preserve the jam in jars so I use the Classic Pectin.  A jar of jam with homemade bread or muffins are a delightful gift.

There is also the Instant Pectin which is nice for no-cook freezer jam.  It is quite simple and as the name says, no cooking required.

I think I might have picked up an unwanted visitor in the strawberry patch!  Yes, my bowl of berries might have some small black bugs but this particular insect was not in my bowl but on me!  My daughter looked at me and asked, “What is on your ear?”  So for the first time in my life, I had a wood tick attached to me and I didn’t even know it!  I took a deep breath and calmly got a tweezers and asked my amazing husband to remove it for me, which he did and I didn’t feel a thing!  Lesson is: I need others in my life to notice an unwanted pest and then help me remove it.

Tasty strawberries are good but this verse from Psalm 34:8 says what is the best.  O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!