The
Merry Weather Garden Club met on Thursday 9th of January, 2014 at
the home of Laura Underwood and in her garden, Country Road Farm, in Greenville.
Members mingled and enjoyed host Jane Morrison’s “Redneck Caviar,” a recipe using
black eyed peas she chose in keeping with the farming theme. Sausages of wild boar, elk, and antelope were
served with smoked Gouda and stilton cheeses and sandwiches. Host Toot Hobson
brought an international flavor to the refreshments with stollen from Germany,
shortbread cookies from Scotland, Italian cookies, and delicious fruity Glogg
beverage from Sweden. Underwood contributed some of her delicious Greenville
grown and pickled beets to the table.
A
short business meeting informed members of the upcoming tourism tour to the
county, and members signed up to host programs for the 2014 year. Sally Neal
reported on meeting Neil Liechty who recently bought “The Castle” in LaGrange,
renamed Bisham Manor, and its gardens will be available for the garden club to
tour in February.
Neal
introduced Laura Underwood and her friend Bobby Hamby who operate Country Road
Farm and raise natural produce and flowers on the half acre property Underwood
inherited from the property from her great aunt Louise Herring. Laura was born in Meriwether but
grew up in Winder then attended UGA. Her work in Florida with trees and park services
soon made her realize her love and talent for growing plants.
In
Greenville, she has had three full growing seasons to perfect the produce
business. Currently she sells at the LaGrange and Columbus Farmers Markets. The
LaGrange Market operates May to October but Columbus is open on Saturdays year
around. Underwood’s garden starts producing heavily in March at which time she
begins to sell at market and also locally to citizens who contact her. She washes, bags, and has the fresh produce
ready on Fridays for purchase.
Currently
much of her garden has a cover crop of rape, rye, and clover but there is evidence
of kale, onions, and garlic. Left over
or cold weather damaged produce feeds the chickens, ducks, and geese on the
property.
Hamby
and Underwood are not certified organic but clearly grow that way using natural
remedies for problems. She has lady bugs
to solve any aphid problem; she plants yarrow, marigolds and feverfew plus sunflowers
to keep the natural predators away.
Their
time is spent doing a lot of weeding. When asked if she uses straw or hay for
mulch she said no because almost all hay today has Graze On sprayed on it and
the residue kills the vegetable plants. Without mulch she has the nuisance of
nut grass though. She does not use pine
straw which makes the soil acidic and in need of lime. She does use it on strawberries but admits to
not growing strawberries well.
Everything
they grow, the remains get composted unless there is disease or bugs. The potatoes
especially like mulch and she grows red, white, and gold varieties that she
plants in March. She uses Johnny’s Seeds some but reminded the club that Johnny’s
is in the far northwest so not entirely suitable for our area. Southern
Exposure Seed Catalogue plus the farmer supply store in Imlac are her prominent
seed sources for Southern seeds.
Country
Road Farm grows heirloom varieties of produce and everything comes from
seed. She creates plugs and blocks of
germinated plants. She refrains from
using plastic pots because of the cost and instead uses plug trays or makes her
own soil blocks with a neat tool that can be purchased. The soil blocks leave
the root exposed somewhat but then the plant undergoes no transplant shock.
Plugs
are used for small herb seeds like dill, basil, parsley, and lettuce. She uses a heat mat for germination and then
they go in the ground around 6-7 weeks. She uses an innovative tool to get the
small plugs out of the trays-the broken end of a plastic spoon!
Some
of her favorite lettuces are mini-Romaine with its pretty head and tendency not
to bolt, red and green butter lettuce, and the popular oak leaf salad variety.
Heirloom tomatoes she likes are Cherokee Purple and Georgia Streak but she
grows the common beef steak and Big and Better Boys too.
The
club toured the greenhouse she and Hamby made from discarded windows. The greenhouse
allows them to start seeds earlier and get plants in the ground earlier than
most gardeners. She starts the seeds
three ways: plugs, blocks, or in a large pan and then separates the plants. She
uses Fafard Promix, peat moss, and cow manure for her soil and she enriches it
with worm castings and liquid fish emulsion. She fertilizes with Organic Plant-tone
3-3-3.
Underwood
told her bad luck stories with one being about pumpkins that were developing
beautifully when she discovered mice holes in them. Her dogs are trained to stay out of the beds,
but she cheerfully turned them loose in the pumpkin area.
The
month of January is time off for Underwood who enjoys curling up on the couch
with a good book as the cold and wet preclude much gardening chores. Members happily
left their email addresses with her for communication when the growing season produced
harvests available for purchase.
