Planted

The garden is planted, let the blog begin.

Mother and I planted our garden on April 29th. Beautiful. The soil, ohhhh the soil, was so spectacular it made me want to go back to my childhood and make mudpies. I planted:

Potatoes (new for me)
Sunflowers
Pumpkins
Corn (again, new for me)
Jalapeno Peppers
Sweet Bell Peppers
Tomatoes (Beefmasters and Bradley's)

2009 Recap, what I learned:

I tried to tame it down this year. Last years crop was such a disappointment with all the rain and the blight. Last year the poor tomatoes. It grieves me so to even talk about my poor tomatoes. Let's just say I harvested 2 tomatoes and had a couple ROWS of them. Darn BLIGHT!

Also, I enjoyed Pumpkins in 2008 that I thought I MUST plant many, many in 2009. Sometimes more is not better. Live and learn.

It was a spectacular jalapeno season last year...almost too much so. We had so many that 100s died on the plants. We just couldn't keep up. I tried the Sweet Peppers in planters last year. A place where they got PLENTY of sun, and that was successful. For what ever reason, sweet peppers don't do exceptionally well in the garden. I know this but I can't resist peppers, I just LOVE them, so I try year after year.

The Sunflowers were beautiful last year. Also, the little Baby Boo Pumpkins were adorable...I needed to plant those later in the year, though. The were ready too soon in the season.

NEW THIS YEAR:
Corn. I am so excited to try this. I understand that I must plant at least three rows to prevent the wind from knocking them down. I think I will put sunflowers on either side of them additionally for extra protection. BUT, I do know it grows. My grandfather grew it all the time.

Potatoes. I watched a Reading Rainbow episode a couple years ago about growing potatoes. I have been curious ever since. (Reading Rainbow? Yes, I have children.) This is the year to try out potatoes. I have started it late in the season, but I am trying to plant them in a shadier area, so we'll see.

Peppers are being planted in a different part of the garden, in hopes of finding the RIGHT place for peppers.