Sunday, June 23, 2013 - UPDATES

The garden is looking good, (great).  Here are some updates:

I didn't think the carrots would ever come up, but they did.  Slowly growing.  The seeds were kind of old so maybe that was why.

Bought some lettuce from Lowes.  It never came up.  Not sure if maybe these seeds were old too.  I bought some more from Park Seed, www.parkseed.com/.  Should be here this coming week.  Also bought some lavender and chives.

The story with the chives... I thought I planted chives, but this came up:

I think its basil.  I planted multi-color basil beside it, which is coming up too.  Not sure how this happened.  
I really think the package was labeled incorrectly, but, I probably mixed things up.  Oh well, it looks good.

We've eaten a lot of spinach and lettuce. Its kind of weird but I'll cut it and it wilts quite a lot.  
I'll get it home and clean it, put it in the refrigerator, and it gets so fresh and lasts over a week.  I love it so much.

Still can't believe how easy all this was.  Probably just a really good year with the right amount of rain and right
temperature. Right?

Yesterday I took this picture:

Zucchini - We are going to have way too many of these, I have a feeling.  Three plants that look like giants with
many blossoms.  If you live near me or work with me, you'll probably get some.

Tomato plants, and we grew these from seeds (just saying):

No tomatoes yet, so I shouldn't be so cocky.  Better wait to boast once we see the actual tomatoes.

Peas, however, didn't plant near enough of these.  We may have enough for one meal:

Here is a panoramic picture of the whole garden:

So that's the update.  Growing great, and not much work required, so far.  Wow, so surprised.

Enjoy, I know we are!!

Julie

Planting

May 7, 2013

Most of the garden is planted.  Have one more row of sweet corn.  It was recommended to plant rows about two weeks apart so it doens't all ripen at the same time.  Next row is to be planted May 18.

Have to plant the tomato plants and sweet pepper plants once they get bigger.  This was about two weeks ago (need a more recent picture):

The peppers have started to grow too.

Here is the whole garden layout:

	GREEN BEANS, GREEN BEANS					CORN, CORN, CORN, CORN, CORN
	PEAS, PEAS, PEAS, PEAS					CORN, CORN, CORN, CORN, CORN
	ZUCCINNI, ZUCCINNI, ZUCCINNI					HONEY BEAR SQUASH, SQUASH
	BASIL, BASIL, CHIVES, CHIVES					CILANTRO, LAVENDER
	CABBAGE, CABBAGE, CABBAGE					ONIONS, ONIONS, ONIONS
	CARROTS, CARROTS, CARROTS					BEETS, BEETS, BEETS
	LETTUCE, LETTCUE, LETTUCE					SPINACH, SPINACH, SPINACH
	FLOWERS,  (LARKSPUR)					FLOWERS, (ASTER - OCEANSTAR MIX)
	SWEET PEPPERS, SWEET PEPPERS					TOMATOES, TOMATOES, TOMATOES

So as things grow we'll all be able to see the progress.

It is so amazing to me, that a small seed like a tomato seed (just like you see in a tomato) can grow into a large plant that grows many, many individual tomatoes.  God is amazing.  I truly believe this is why most farmers believe in God.  They watch mircles every time they plant a seed.

Spinach and peas.

I'm very excited.....

More later!!!

4/18/2013

GARDEN - A plot of ground, usually near a house, where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, or herbs are cultivated. 

GARDENER - Any person who gardens or is skillful in gardening.

NOVICE - A person who is new to the circumstances, work, etc., in which they are placed; a beginner.


We all know the meaning of these words.  But it helps to spell them out to really know what this blog is about. 

I am a beginner at gardening.  Not that I've never grown anything before.  I've had flowers around my house, and I remember being asked to pull the beans in my Mom's garden when I was young.  "Hated it!"  But I myself have never had a vegetable garden where I grew my own food.  Real food that I could actually use to sustain myself and family.

So, I asked my guy friend, CS, if I could use his back yard for a garden, (I live in town with no yard to speak of).  He said YES. 

We started talking about it and decided on raised bed gardening.  We have three, 6' x 9' beds.  Here are the frames:

Making sure to keep enough room between for the lawn mower, we set them down with the handy dandy skid steer that CS owns (what a great back saver).

Looked up, on the web, how to best prepare them for planting.  Put in the weed paper first, then a layer of old hay, then field dirt (CS has about 100+ acres of farm land) and then top soil, which we bought.  I know, a farmer who owns 100+ acres, had to buy more dirt.....  I don't want to hear it.  We needed good new dirt.  Not something that's been growing crops for more than 2 generations. 

We finished with these:

We will be starting tomatoes and sweet peppers from seed and they are growing now:

I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Vegetable layout to come.