A Garden Update - Lessons Learned

We finally have ripe tomatoes!!  This is so exciting.  It's been torturous for them to walk around the garden waiting patiently for them to turn red.  The funny part is that I plant so many kinds of heirloom tomatoes (that I started from seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds),  I don't remember now what is what.  Yes, I was an organized gardener and labeled each plant as they were put in.  However, I learned a very important lesson.  Wooden Popsicle sticks written on with a Sharpie do not endure the weather for long.  None of the wonderful tomato variety names are legible now, neither are the pepper's or the cucumber's or anything else.  So, our harvests will be total guessing games.  I know I planted other colors of tomatoes, so that will be interesting.

Look at these beauties.  I think these are Anaheim peppers, but I'm not positive.  Doesn't matter, they are delicious.

Overall, I think my first EVER in the ground garden has been a total success!  I no longer have to hear my husband point to other people's gardens and say, "Their garden is kicking your garden's butt!"

Now, mine is kicking butt and he is very proud of me.  The kids and I have had a blast nurturing this little patch of land and helping it go from weeds to food.  Here are some lessons I've learned along the way.

Lesson #1 - Label plants on something weather proof.  I read somewhere about cutting up an old mini blind and using that to write on.  I wonder if the Sharpie would stay on them.

Lesson #2- Corn gets really tall.  I'm really glad I planted it on the northern edge.

Lesson #3 - Do not underestimate the recommended space between paths.  Oh, and my trellises for the cucumbers and beans are nowhere near tall enough.  They have climbed to the top and now have nowhere to go.

I have no idea how I'm going to get in there to reap the benefits of my harvest.

Lesson #4 - Tomato plants get really big.  I'm really glad I used the sturdy wire fencing between T-posts and twine to trellis the tomatoes instead of the flimsy nylon trellis. 

Lesson #5 - I hate squash bugs.  Picking them off did not work.  Neem oil did not work.  I finally caved and bought some Seven dust, but I think it was too late.  This zucchini plant is not going to survive.

Lesson #6 - Teeny tiny baby okra are the cutest thing ever.  Oh, and the flowers that come before the baby okra are beautiful.  Too bad it was closed when I took this picture.  I can't wait to pickle some okra.

Lesson #7 - Nope, I was wrong.  Teeny tiny watermelons are the cutest thing ever!

Lesson #8 - Winter squash grow really, really, really fast and invades EVERY thing.  It needs much more space than I gave it.

Lesson # 9 - Basil is yummy eaten straight off the plant.

Lesson #10 - The three layers of newspaper covered with straw is totally worth the effort.  I completed one half of the garden (where my daughter is standing above) and the paths are beautiful and weed free (except for occasional stragglers that pop up on the sides, but they are easy to pull).  Next year, I'll do the entire garden that way. 

If you have any other tips for a newbie gardener, please leave me a comment and share them!

I believe...

Kim over at the  The Inadvertent Farmer wants to know what we believe this week about our gardens.  So I took my camera out this morning for my daily morning check of everything.  Here's what I found:

I believe the boxes I let the kids plant all by themselves was a great idea!  I gave them my box of seeds a few weeks ago and let them fill up the boxes and plant whatever their heart desired.

The bush beans are really starting to come up and they are so thrilled.  She looks really excited, huh?  Well, she woke up right as I was going outside and insisted on coming with me. 

Then I went into my garden and I believe I almost cried.

My poor kohlrabi is done, kaput, and needs to be put out of it's misery.  Honestly, I don't even know what a kohlrabi is.  I've never seen or eaten one.  I just thought it sounded cool. 

Apparently, these evil things thought it sounded good too.  I guess I'll never get to try a kohlrabi.

I believe that I WILL have winter squash even though I planted it really late. 

I believe that my cucumbers will take over the world!

I believe that these are the cutest peppers ever!

I believe that my corn is finally almost as big as everybody else's corn that I see while driving home.

and my tomatos are now bigger than my child!  This is a first for me! 

Please excuse her clothing.  She likes to sleep in her daddy's t-shirts.

I believe that watching her peek into the zucchini plant to see how big they have gotten over night is the cutest thing ever!

I believe I'm going to need a wide variety of zucchini recipes soon.

Even though it's not as big as others, and things are growing slowly, I believe this is the biggest, best garden I've ever had!

And for my last belief, I believe these are the most evil creatures in the world.

Especially, after one of them squirted me with green juice when I squished it.

I really wish they'd leave my beautiful tomatoes alone!

There's one more thing I want to share that's totally unrelated to gardening, but it's really cool.

One of our tadpoles has his little froggy legs!!

Finally! A Garden Update

I haven't done a garden update in a while.  I've been too busy working in the garden to sit down and write about it! 

So far, it is my best attempt at a garden ever!  Everything is looking great!  I got a late start on everything because I didn't get my tiller until the end of May, but I've got everything planted now.

The 27 tomato plants all look super happy!  I started all but one from seed.  I usually kill all my seedlings so this is a major feat for me.

I'm so excited to see these cute little things...

We have a pepper!

and several Zucchini...

We've already had fresh green beans for dinner.

I think these are some sort of radish but I'm not postive, since they look nothing like the radishs growing next door.  Whatever it is, it's growing like crazy!

There's a monster radish growing and we've decided to leave it be and see how big it gets!

Well, everything looks great except my poor munched up Kohlrabi.

They run outside every morning to see what is new.

And get so excited when they find one of these:

or one of these:

For a kid who doesn't even like onions, I was shocked when he took a nibble and said "mmm good".   I guess anything tastes better when you grow it yourself!

KinderGardens update - Woo Hoo! We have Poo!

I have a friend who works on a horse ranch.  He brought me a truck load of poo yesterday!  I'm so excited.  Yes, I'm excited about a truckload of poo.  Don't say a word.  Just let me be happy about my poo, okay?  Thank you very much for understanding.

I was not expecting a truck of this gigantic size to pull up at my house.

He really knows how to deliver poo!

My kids loved watching the big truck dump out the poo.

If anyone around here needs poo, I know the guy to call!

Climbing poo mountain was lots of fun.

Who knew that a mountain of poo would make them so happy?

and excited!!

Perhaps it's because they know we can get started on their sunflower house soon!

Their seedlings are getting huge!


 Now maybe we can actually get stuff to grow in our pitiful, rocky, clay soil.

Oh, and I got a new tiller!  It's little, but awesome and powerful, and I can do it myself.  We have lots of work to do this week!

Happy Gardening!!

Gardening update

We had our first ever garden fresh (out of my own garden) salad!!   You have no idea how exciting this is considering how last year my entire harvest was 11 tiny tomatoes, 6 green beans, and 2 mini cucumbers.  I'm not kidding.  It was that bad.  With the help of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible and numerous other books,  I AM going to do much better this year.

I present to you my lettuce.  We are very proud of it.  It was wonderful. 

We are still working on getting the weeds out of the garden area.  It was tilled what seems like forever ago because the weeds where I haven't gotten to have grown to 2 feet high.  I am getting a tiller for Mother's Day!  Yes, I know.  One should never ask for something like this for Mother's Day, but I really want one.  It will make my life so much easier.

They have been working so hard.

This is the "I'm tired and hungry, Can I stop now MOM?" look.

Reece tried his best to save every worm that got pulled out with the weeds.

 We brought the babies outside for a little playtime in the grass.  They loved the dirt.

We gave them a worm.  They had no idea what to do with it.  Poor chickens.  They are treated like babies in the house.  I hope they can figure out how to be chickens when they get put outside.

We usually have an audience when we work outside.  Our next door neighbors have cows.  They like to hang out by our fence because it's the only shade in their pasture.  My little one has started naming them all.

We are adding topsoil and horse poop to the dirt trying to make the hard, clay soil better.

Here is one almost finished row:

Straight rows are only for OCD people, right?

Getting to play with the water hose always perks them up!

Reece took a break and asked to use my camera to walk around and take pictures.  This is what he came back with:

I think he may be a better photographer than I am.

Since we are so behind with preparing the soil for planting, I let them start the Sunflower and Morning Glory seeds for their playhouse.  Hopefully, when I get my tiller and we can get the ground ready, the flowers will have a little head start.

One last thing I wanted to share:

Isn't my Mother's Day Bouquet beautiful!!