New Growth and Rain

The weather shows rain all week....so far I've only seen a couple drops. I am eager for a downpour, otherwise, I will be forced to get out and water...which is fine, but I don't know, there is something about rain water that is different from using a sprinkler.

My seedlings are growing rapidly. We're hoping by May 27th to have these guys in the ground. The Salsa Tomatoes are doing very well and the peppers are coming along. I am hopeful!

We have had lots of sprouts come up since last week. This is the fun part, waiting and watching the new growth. If fact, I took these pictures yesterday morning and I went back out in the evening and my one of my Baby Boo Pumpkins sprouted since the morning. This blog will be heavy on the photos.Mother's Blue Lake Green Beans Mother's Broccoli and Green OnionsMy Lettuce and Mother's BroccoliMy Sunflower VarietiesMother's Zucchini

My Cinderella Pumpkins!

My Gourds.

We planted our nearly 250 square feet of annuals on Monday. Some are from last year's flowers. Last year mother saved zinnias and marigolds. This year we added aster, baby's breath, cosmos and a mix of annual flowers. We planted all of this on Monday the 27th.
I haven't spoken about our fruit trees and vines in a while. Here are the blackberries. They are budding!

Below are some peach buds. We also have cherries and pears budding.

The photos below are some flowers in my mother and grandmother's yard. Mom has an amazing green thumb. I am trying to learn all I can so I will be able to grow beautiful and delicious plants. I do pretty well, but I have a LONG way to go.Lily of the ValleyClematis

Garden Blog Gone Public...sort of.

My awesome company Hammock Inc. mentioned my blog on its website. This triggered a lot of questions; therefore, I will attempt to answer some of the main questions now that I have had time to think about some of them.

1. Is your garden about five acres?

Uh, no. A rough estimate is it is about 5,000 square feet. I don't know how to translate that into acres. AND of that 5,000 square feet, I personally cultivate about 1,200 square feet...details on that to follow.

2. Have I always had a large garden?

Me personally, no. Last year was my first year to have a "non-back yard" garden. My grandfather; however, has always had a garden. He passed away three years ago and since then my folks and I have started carrying on the tradition of gardening.

3. How do your parents fit into this gardening situation?

After my precious grandfather passed away, my parents moved into his house with my grandmother. That story is a long, but it makes perfect sense. Once they moved into my grandfather's place, Husband and I bought their twelve acres from them. Our properties border each other. And all these properties were once owned by my grandfather and coincidentally is where my childhood home is. The garden area is technically their property, but when you deal with mom's and dad's it's all fair game and they are more than delighted to share the garden space.

4. How do I preserve my plants once harvested?

I learned to can tomatoes from my grandmother, but I haven't practiced that. My Granny and my mother can or freeze or make jam out of everything. I like to be cool at my office and church and share the produce....but if you know how much was canned and eaten fresh, you'd realize there was nothing to do but give it away; thus the appearance of coolness!!! BUT if I get peppers, I will probably freeze them or pickle them. I am also interested in preserving my sugar pumpkins for muffins and pies this year, so that will be something new I learn. If I was up to all the work of picking, breaking and canning green beans, I so totally would, because they are delicious....Frankly, we're still eating 2004 beans.

5. What is your favorite thing to grow?

Last year I had a blast with pumpkins. This year, I went WAY overboard with them. I hope they are as much fun this year as last. We'll see. I am excited about my strawberries and I am experimenting with Peppers....that is the fun part. I like playing around and seeing what happens.

6. What pests eat our garden?

Primarily deer. My grandfather tried everything he could but to no avail. We've got a large dog we hope will scare away the deer this year, but that, too, may be wishful thinking. This past year they particularly enjoyed the green beans, squash and cucumbers.

Seeds in the Ground!

Last Friday my sweet husband tilled the garden so we could plant!

Although my motivation was growing wary from cool weather and stubborn seeds, tilling the garden sparked my interest yet again.

I finally got my strawberry plants planted....twenty-three plants in all!  This pot looks a little funny, but it took the best picture.  The other two pots are terra cotta and hold nine plants each.  My only worry about having pots like this is not being able to hang them up high.  I am worried that Tom, our cat, will destroy them.  We'll see.

So my mother decided that she wanted more space in the garden and I decided I wanted more space in the garden; therefore, mother got more space.  I managed, however, to get everything planted, though not according to my chart.

Everything is now sprouting.  Great story...my mother was watering all our little sprouts in the greenhouse when our friendly 5'+ black snake pokes his head down in from of my mother's face.  After catching her breath, she watches him stretch out all the way across the width of the greenhouse.  As she looks up she finds his MUCH larger friend coiled around the rafter.  At that point she thought she'd better give the snakes some space.  Thankfully black snakes mean that Rattlers and Copperheads are not around, so we'll keep them after all, but naturally they give us the heeby jeebies.  I personally met one of them a couple days later.  I hope to catch a picture of them at some point, but perhaps it'll only be their skin as they shed it.

I don't know how much longer before I can plant my pepper and tomato plants, probably at least three more weeks, but they are looking good so far.

So it's really hard to take nice pictures of piles of dirt to reflect the hours spent planting seeds and plants so these next couple pics will be just that...piles of dirt and a couple little plants.  I am always amazed by how one little seeds can quickly turn into a jungle of plants and fruit.  Amazing....I am a devout Christian, but I can't understand how someone wouldn't believe in God after watching nature do it's thing.

Sprouts!

So finally on day 14, we began seeing sprouts. Come on warm weather! I have no idea if the peppers are ever going to get going....I may be out buying pepper plants after all. That is a bummer! We'll see. There is still time.

We planted our broccoli, green onions and lettuce on Easter Sunday. The goal this weekend is to get everything else planted! My sweet husband tilled the garden rows for the broccoli, onions and lettuce, and he enjoyed it.

What else is growing right now....oh yes, Daughter's Zinnia has sprouted. I thought we'd lost that one. The spouts pop up so fast, I can't wait to see what has happened today.

My goal before this weekend is to get my strawberries transplanted into the strawberry pots that I found. I had them tucked away at the house the whole time. I think that a bloom is starting to form on one of the plants...strawberries so soon....I can't wait!

The Waiting Game

Spring teases me every year. I get so eager to get planting the very minute we get a warm day. Thankfully the rule "NEVER PLANT BEFORE APRIL 15" stuck. I am still quite impatient and irritated by the last few frosts of the season.

I am still waiting to see sprouts emerge from our pots, but the cold weather is making them reluctant to pop their heads through...even in a greenhouse. Perhaps this weekend?

Gardening Layout

So, the space I need is a little larger than I had planned, but I am not totally surprised. What can I say pumpkins take up a lot of room! And, I had not planned on having nearly 200 pepper seeds. Even if we get 60% of the plants, that is still a load of peppers. This also makes me nervous as peppers are difficult to grow in our garden. So we'll see.

This image is a little hard to read, but it is my garden map. How fun...I know a bit much, but I am so excited..I am going to show it to my folks tonight to see if my plans are reasonable or over the top. We'll see.

The storms that are expected tonight sort of ruin our tilling plans. Hopefully our little broccoli plants will hang in there for better conditions. We bought them early because we were warned that there may be a shortage.

As for my strawberries, I have decided to use a coconut/wire planter and grow them in a hanging plant. I am hopeful. I will also be experimenting with peppers in a planter. And we nixed the idea of having thorn-less raspberries near the blackberries. I forgot the whole reason why.

And so it has begun!

The seeds finally arrived. I am so excited. It's funny, I am happy just to hold the packages and look at them. So fun! Not only that, but a friend of mine gave me 25 strawberry plants. I am going to grow the strawberries in a hanging planter. I read online how to go about that. I'll blog and make pictures of the hanging planters when I get that going!

So on Monday, mom and I started all of our seeds. Ideally, I should have started these earlier in the month. But it is what it is. I started Salsa Tomatoes, I believe they are like Roma's. Husband and I love salsa, so we look forward to seeing how these taste. Mother started, Big Mama's and hybrid seedless tomatoes. In addition to the tomatoes, I started TONS of peppers. I am nervous about the peppers because they don't grow well in our gardens for whatever reason. We'll see. I am going to try to plant some of the peppers in planters to see if the growth improves. All in all, we started over 100 plants. YIKES! Currently, all of the seeds are hanging out in the greenhouse. I look forward to seeing sprouts next week! How exciting!


Hopefully by the weekend Husband will till the rows. Mother needs to get the broccoli plants into the ground. I am also going to plant the lettuce seeds. In the meantime, I am trying to figure out the best places for starting my pumpkins. Pumpkins spread so much, I have to be very thoughtful of this. I have a couple trellis' that will hold the Baby Boo pumpkins and the small gourds.


And what kind of mom would I be if I didn't get my kids interested in gardening.? Last year they loved watching their pumpkins and sunflowers grow. They already love the "farm life," so I am anticipating they will be little gardeners as toddlers! Here are some pictures of them at our local library planting zinnias. Also, Publix has a toddler program you can sign up for coupons and whatnot, so of course I signed up. But they did something so cool this spring. They send out little flower seed strips. We got these planted on Saturday and already we have a sprout! So fun!