Thursday, April 14, 2011

I wanna live where the green grass grows...

Spring Garden

OK so we didn't plant any rows of corn, but Paul and I made our first attempt at a vegetable garden this past fall. We (by we I mean Paul) dug up about and 8x10 section with 3 rows. I ordered heirloom seeds and we did lettuce, cabbage, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, squash and beans. I think we got a few snacks out of it and also had fun. And learned a lot. When it came time to think about a Spring garden, we decided to go big, and enlarge the garden about 10 fold. We even borrowed a rototiller and added amendments, etc.

I have to say now that things are growing, this garden has become like another baby. I have to go check on it several times a day, and I'm starting to worry about what's going to happen to it when I leave for the weekend, etc. It's situated in our back yard where the kids play, so it works out perfectly. The kids play and I garden. I highly recommend this as a project for a stay at home parent! So far everything is going quite well. We bought a few seedlings from the big box store, and I also ordered lots more heirloom varieties and germinated them myself.

We are already seeing tiny green tomatoes and little baby yellow squash. I am so excited! We gave the kids their own row, although I really don't trust them in the garden too much yet. We've lost more than one pepper plant due to a little shoe snapping it in half. They love it though, and they even help me rake leaves to mulch with and take the compost out.


If you'll notice, our garden quite resembles the state of Nevada. In the top right is the original section where our fall garden was.


Making rows in early February.



Spinach. Who knew it was so easy to grow?! Next time we'll be planting LOTS more of this. The kids pick it right out of the garden and eat it.



Lettuce. Again, SO easy to grow. We did learn that you have to thin it to get it to grow better. That seems obvious now, doesn't it.


We went ahead and harvested our carrots a few weeks ago. Daddy was at work so I let the kids get in their and go digging for them.



Doing the carrot dance.


Here's "Nevada" looking a little more like a garden, and a little less like the actual state.



Cabbage from the fall garden. Unfortunately a small creature (probably a stinking mole!) enjoyed it before we did. Grrr.



New For Spring
Onions. I can't remember if they're white or yellow. We'll know soon enough.


Beans.


Little green tomatoes. We have 3 different varieties going. 9 or 10 plants total. I'm hoping we have enough to "put some away." And I'm hoping someone will show me how to do this.




Watermelon! Fingers crossed.
Our kinds neighbors treated us to a whole watermelon this weekend. The twins were adamant it came from the garden. Because we planted a seed last week.




Just in case you are curious, or if you want to trade notes, this is what we have going now:

Cucumbers - seedlings from the store and also an heirloom variety which I'm having trouble germinating.

Peppers - Jalepenos and red sweet. Also attempting orange bells from seed.

Canteloupe - heirloom from seed

Potatoes - from the farm store.

Radish: not looking hot I think I will try again in the fall
Broccoli: ditto on radish

Squash: yellow crookneck and 2 heirloom varieties

Eggplant : Black Beauty from the store. And who knew the seeds were so hard to germinate..I'm on my 3rd attempt with 2 different varieties.

Strawberries...from seed, and heirloom again. I think it will be a few years until I see and fruit but it's fun anyways.

Carrots: They are supposed to be red, fun!

And then we have all sorts of squashes growing out of the compost pile. I'm excited to see what becomes of it. I've read that you can't grow new plants from seeds from grocery store produce. This is because the big seed companies (Like Monsanto I guess) create seed that can't be reused, if you will, so that farmers have to buy new seed every year. My "freebies" are flowering profusely, but I've yet to see any "fruit", so this may be the case. We'll see.

I think that is. We are having a lot of fun and are excited to see what become of it. I'm hoping to have lots to share.


Thanks for reading :)

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