Like I said before, one of my loves is gardening. There's just something about being outside, picking your own food, and getting a wicked sunburn. I love it! Last week the weather here in Eastern Idaho was GORGEOUS! A lot of my free time on Wednesday and Thursday was spent outside, working in the yard. By the time Friday rolled around My arms were getting pretty red, but it was My Dear's Friday off, so I skipped out on helping at school (I try to volunteer in Miss A's classroom every other Friday), so we could get more yard work done. That darn Dear of mine though! He beat me to the lawn mower and he was the lucky one that got to mow the back yard. And that is not sarcasm, I actually enjoy mowing. I've gotten some high quality weeding time in, and I'm itching to start planting our garden here at the house. Alas, it is not to be. Yet. The tomato and pepper seedlings are still under lights in the basement, and I'm wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying, and planning, and dreaming (does anybody else want to go watch My Best Friend's Wedding now?) that those little seedlings will grow. I put some mild fertilizer on them when I watered them on Sunday, so hopefully they will grow some more leaves.
Our pole beans got to tall, and they had to be brought upstairs. My kitchen now is the home of 16 pole bean plants. Hopefully by this weekend they will be residing in our garden at Taylorview Farms. See, my church, it has this huge farm due south of our house, a few miles, and each year they set aside some of the land for people to have their own garden plots. Some of these people don't have any space where they reside to grow a garden, and some (like us) just want more space to grow more. So, all of our more hardy things (well, the pumpkins and cucumbers aren't so hardy) will be planted out at Taylorview. The tomatoes and peppers will stay here at the house, because they aren't ever quite ready when the frosts start in the fall.
Yesterday evening (Monday) we went out to Taylorview and started planting. We planted rows and rows and rows of carrots, a few rows of onions, three pumpkins (we have four seedlings under the lights too), lots of sunflowers (hopefully they grow fast and make a good wind break), quite a few rows of cucumbers (we want to make pickles this year), and a few rows of brussel sprouts. Sometime today I'm hoping to get back down there and plant pole beans and peas. We'll see if I make it. It'll probably be after picking up Miss A from school (mental note: bring a snack to keep the kiddos happy). And when I remember I will bring a camera down there and take some pictures. Right now it just looks like a lot of dirt, because not even the farm fields behind our garden are planted.
Oh, and as a side note: I have 29 followers!!! The give-away is still open though, since I changed the date to May 22nd, so go comment on the give-away post to enter the contest, and I will post the winner on the morning of May 23rd, and, as long as I have the winner's e-mail address, I will also e-mail the winner. Remember, you need a separate comment for each entry! And, if you look through my blog posts, there might be a bonus entry opportunity! ;)
And tell me, do you garden? Have you gardened in the past? What sorts of things have you grown, or would like to grow? And if you don't garden, what sorts of home grown foods do you like to eat?
4 comments:
I'm scaling back my vegetable garden this year to 6 4'x16' beds. Tomorrow I'll be working on a trellis for my squash. It's a massive thing built up with cedar 4x4x for the legs, and then cedar 2x4s for the top. I'm not sure I'll be able to build it all before I install it.
So far I have kole crops, lettuces, potatoes, onions, peas and corn planted. We've only had two good weekend days so far this year so going has been slow.
Of course I like to garden. I have been working on my garden too. With all the rain we have been having in Southern Illinois and flooding, it has been a slow start this year for everyone. I especially feel sorry for the farmers. And double sorry for the farmer who had gotten in there plantings only to have the floods destroy everything. I did not have anything planted. But then I live to high up for the flooding to be a problem for me.
I finally planted 5 rows of corn. The last two rows were an early corn that I soaked the seeds overnight before planting. All the corn has sprouted. So I am hoping we have sweet corn for my girls and their families when they come to visit this summer. It will be close. Have to remember to fertilize them to give them that extra boost. :)
I have also planted peas-edible pods and regular, green beans, lima beans, tomatoes, peppers-hot and sweet, cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon, pumpkin, okra, and onions. I think that is everything. I am also putting the plan on graph paper so I can remember where everything is planted so I can rotate my crops for next year. I still want to plant a few more things. And I may want to plant more tomatoes. I only have 15 plants (five varieties) so may need more. I like tomatoes.
My biggest problem is that my tiller stopped tilling on Friday. So now I have to get it fixed. The tines do not engage. Darn! The garden can get overgrown so quickly. Especially now that the weather has finally gotten nice.
Happy Gardening to everyone. :)
4 of my plants died due to too much rain. I've never had that happen before in CO!
That is AWESOME that Talorview is doing a garden. Is it something their school wanted to do? I've thought about starting something like that at my school- but that is a pretty big project to take on...
Post a Comment