The Garden

We have been enjoying the ease of gardening this year, with an automatic watering system and 1/3 of the garden in grow boxes life is easy! Take a look!

Here are the roma tomatoes along with carrots and some herbs...

Here are the pumkins sprawling across the front with cucumbers and cantaloupe growing up the trellis' in back.

The corn.. tall and beautiful this year...

Plus we have invited some fun friends to our garden.. SEE~

Ok, I'll zoom in for you! Here he is just chillin on a pumpkin leaf, the boys just love going out to see where he is hangin out!

This year is the first year the kids are big enough to really get the garden, Kevin climes the fence every time he wants a tomato, goes and finds a red one and asks me to cut it up for him! Cameron's favorite are the cucumbers, and they both are waiting patiently for the corn to be ready so we can eat it for a month strait!

It sure has been a great year, we have been enjoying lots of good bugs which means fewer bad bugs!

Garden update...

Things are going great in the garden! We have jalapeños coming out of our ears, ears of corn growing like crazy (hope the earwigs aren't eating them before we can) we cut back the pumpkins so the watermelon and cantaloupe could grow, (good news! we have two baby watermelon-that we can see at least!) I have no idea if we will get any cantaloupe or squash- they seem to only grow when it is above 90 degrees) the zucchini has been a lot of fun, onions, carrots and green beans (*next year we are going back to bush beans, the pole beans aren't doing very well) the tomatoes are so much fun! we have enough for the kids to eat them strait off the vine and then some (hoping to can some later in the season) *I like the little red cherry tomatoes best but Cameron eats the orange ones before they are even ready to eat. the peppers are growing reallly well. I have three jalapeno plants covered in peppers, and orange pepper plant with 6 huge peppers on it (if they will ever turn orange, I have no idea) and three green pepper plants that are coming along quiet nicely! plus a red cherry pepper plant that is doing well, but I have no idea what to do with those- do you? So to be honest the only thing I am missing is cucumbers... I killed them all! I like the layout of the garden this year, it is the best year so far, but I think we are gonna move the garden around next year. Corn on the north end, then vining plants in the middle (again) with all the other stuff at the other end, I think that will help shake things up a bit! this was the first year we actually staked the rows, and by far it musch more organized than years before... ( trying to talk myself into doing it again next year) the fence is a must have! it kept the dogs and kids out pretty good, plus kept (most) of the pumpkins inside the garden. All in all it was a great learning experince.. we have had more bugs in the garden this year than in the years past, but we have had more good bugs then ever too! We had frogs, praying mantis', lady bugs, and grasshoppers, but they all brought with them, earwigs.. darn it! oh and this year was the year of the field mouse, but we do live in the middle of a farm fields.. so what did I expect!?

Homegrown goodness

Enough said..


Oh, and here is Cameron who decided he would finish off my bowl of salad (and then complain until he had seconds) What other one year old do you know will eat Lettuce, radishes and carrots! (and then go back to his pizza!)

growing...I think

So I have only killed two plants this year... two of my four cucumber plants, they rest of them all seem to be hanging on. I have added a few more plants, people have been nice enough to give me, I added two more jalapeño plants, and a dill plant (I am gonna try my hand at herbs this year). The corn is coming up nicely, Very exciting! My radishes are now huge and getting hot so I am glad that I planted a second crop in the house. I am getting my cherry tomatoes and second generation of green beans ready to planted outside, plus my second generation of green pepper plants, lets see if I can keep these ones alive! I am very excited... I am learning a little something new everyday it seems like... I can't wait for the plants to get big and start harvesting! woohoo! So my dreams for someday, having a water system in place, and getting grow boxes going, for one third of my garden I would love to try to do square foot gardening.. It think it would be a lot more efficient but as for the other parts (melons and pumpkins and corn) I am not so sure... well have to see!

So what do you do during a wind storm?

I know what I do... I run around my garden covering up my plants (at least the ones that can be covered up! The wind (according to the weather.com) is blowing 35 mpg with gusts up to 45... Which can take plants from living healthy to leafless stocks in no time flat (plus dry them out pretty good) So it was a good thing that I hadn't thrown away all my butter dishes/sour cream dishes/ and my milk jug hot caps.. I hope all the plants make it. There were a few plants that I couldn't cover (to tall or on a trelis) all my bean plants and three of my tomatoes.. good luck guys! So now you know what I do.. what do you do during a wind storm? lol


(oh, we planted all of the plants (minus the cherry tomatoes and peppers that aren't quiet big enough for the garden yet) in the garden yesterday.. it is amazing how adding all of our plants made our garden perk up! (and cleaned up the guest room) The corn still has come up yet but that is all we are waiting for...:)

Garden tips for next year...

So I will totally forget this next spring so I am writing this down so I don't forget it.

• One row (in the green house) is fine for Lima Beans(2), Green Beans(4), Lettuce(way to many), Watermelon(5), Pumpkin(6), Cucumber(4), Cantaloupe(5) and Peppers(4), it was a little much for tomatoes (gave a way a bunch). (the number you have living right now)
  

• March 30th was great for Watermelon, pumpkin, cucumbers,cantaloupe, peppers and tomatoes, it was a little early for the beans (they grow fast and are need trellis, before it is time to plant outside) Try April 15th for beans.

• The cold vegetables did great outside (onions, carrots, radishes ) when planted sometime the beginning of April (try wide rows next year) (the lettuce grew but who knows if it will bolt now that the weather is warming up- maybe better in the house?)

• Start collecting butter dishes, sour cream dishes, and the like in January, the 16 oz cups did well, but the plants you put into bigger dishes did much better... and can stay longer
  

• The milk jugs you kept for heat caps can also be used for containers for bigger plants.

• We put them out on the front porch starting may 13th and plan on planting them on the 23rd(weather permitting). -they have stayed outside over night a few times and done fine!
  

• We are planting the corn outside tonight (try starting corn inside next year- last year it didn't work)

• The branches you cut off of the tree when pruning in the spring work great to help stabilize the beans and tomatoes!

• Buy (2) 40 lb bags of walmart potting soil next year... for all the transplanting.