Gardening!

I am so very excited for our garden this year. We had to move it to a new location, so we are starting over in a corner of what was a corn field last year.

There was a lot of prep that went into preparing the new garden.

We are in a nice little triangle, that got really weedy... really fast!

All of the squash plants seem to be doing well!

We picked up some brussel sprouts at the local green house. They seem happy too :)

I adore pea's, so they had to be in the garden!

Somehow my onion rows didn't stay to straight! I must have been getting tired on planting day!

When I was going out to take the garden pics, I found this guy scurrying around in the tree above me.  I know they do bad things around the farm, but he's kinda cute!!

So, how is your garden growing?

The Garden is Growing!

What a spring this has been! It feels like it was just a few days ago, I took this picture of some of my seed packs. Looking at the date stamp on my photo's, it actually been several weeks!

 

 Once we were able to get the garden ready, I got in there and got it planted. And then it rained. And it rained. And it rained some more! 

No more!!! The sun is finally here and most things are growing! 

Lots of weeds growing too. I am hoping Truckin' Man will help me catch up on those this weekend.

This tiny little growth is Rainbow Swiss Chard.  I plant something new each year that I haven't tried before. This year... Chard! It's growing, so I hope we like it!

Beautiful Lettuce! I am sooo stinkin' excited to have lettuce from my own garden, I can hardly wait. Truth be told, I really could have pinched off a few of these young leaves, but I want them to grow!

 Onions are growing. They aren't looking fabulous, but I am happy with any sign of growth!

 Beans! Yeay!

Even a few pea's are poppin' up!

Squash and Pumpkins are thriving. 

Here is Hazel. She is always at my side in the garden. She is so camera shy, she refuses to take a good photo. She will sit still and stare at me for 20 minutes. Just when I even think of aiming the camera, she moves!

Hoarders - Vegetable Hoarders, that is!

I am finally feeling that the garden is starting to slow down a little tiny bit, but it is still producing more than I can keep up with! Sweet Corn is done. . .  Yeay! It really didn't do well, but considering the poor growing conditions this year, I can't complain. We had plenty to eat, as well as some put away to enjoy later this year. I have harvested all of the onions. They did soo poorly this year, I am disappointed. I will have enough to get half way through the winter, if I am lucky. I can't get an accurate count, since I picked some during the growing season to go directly into dishes and salads, but my guess is that only 50% grew.  Only a handful made it to the nice baseball size. On the plus side, what I am lacking in quantity, I made up for in quality! They are delicious!

The stars of the shows... Walla Walla. Biggest in size and super sweet!

 The Candy Cane's pulled through in 2nd place.

The Texas 1015's apparently did not like my growing conditions :(

Still plenty of other veggies to keep me busy.

 I am begging to feel like we are hoarders, of vegetables anyway!

Lessons learned this year:

#1 Stay on top of the weeds! I was spending so much time watering, I let the weeds go. I am so paying for that choice now. But overall, I suppose the watering was the best use of my time.

#2 Just because you are offered tons of free broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants in the spring, you do not have to accept them all, let alone plant them all!

#3 No matter how amazing it is to watch your pumpkin vines spread everywhere . . .  cut some of them off so that they do not monopolize your garden. 

Happy Labor Day! Enjoy and Stay Safe. I have to get back to the veggies now :)

They just keep growing!!

It is hard to believe it is mid-August, and this garden is just not slowing down. 

The freezer is slowly filling with all sorts of veggies to keep us going with our own food through the winter. 

Today I did find signs of our first intruder ever. Apparently a raccoon found a way to slip past our dog, undetected. 

I trust that this will not happen again!

For planting the green beans so late, they are doing awesome.

I searched all spring for the perfect bean. 

I like the really long skinny varieties. I think I found a winner!

Lovely sunflowers. The bee's love them, too!

Blooms continue on the squash and pumpkins.

The pumpkin vine has grown up and over the tomatoes. 

I should cut it off, but I am curious how far it will go!

Dug up our first carrots of the season today. Small, but good!

Second harvest of cabbage!

Finally a perfect head of cauliflower! It is apparently doing better, in our cooler temps.

And the big attraction. . . . . My mammoth pumpkin! I am so excited to see how big it ends up!

Veggies, Veggies and Fruit!

Considering what bad weather we have had this year for drought and heat, the garden is still doing well! I guess that my attempts at watering did pay off. 

Lettuce is still producing like crazy. I am really dreading the day we have to go back to buying store lettuce.

 

Apparently, my dog is protecting the lettuce from something....!

 

I think that my peppers are going to be my pride and joy of the garden this year. They had a tough road, but are finally producing! I hope that I am lucky enough to continue to pick many more of these!

The cauliflower looks to be almost done, but the broccoli is still going crazy. Last night I did my first attempt at freezing broccoli. It really was very simple. Clean it, blanch it, freeze it. Can't get much easier than that!

The Sweet Corn is doing much better than I had expected this season. Some of the corn did not pollinate due to the weather, and we have had a few ears that we had to give right to the chickens because of this, but overall... pretty successful!

Pumpkins are still growing! I really don't know pumpkin sizes well yet, but after 2 unsuccessful years of try to raise pumpkins, I am thrilled over the growth.

Our blackberries are winding down for the season, but we enjoyed them while they were here. All of us did. Our dog eats them right off the vine. And the chickens apparently wait for me to set my bowl down so that they can dig in. 

I found a local vendor that sells peaches that they have shipped to Wisconsin direct from the peach orchards. No middle man, no sitting around in semi trailers. It's as fresh from South Carolina as I can get them without driving there myself. Trust me...  anything from South Carolina is better :)

I think I smell a peach treat coming to share with ya'll this week!

Gardening in July

It is so hard to believe that July is almost over!! Where is the summer going? Sadly, a good part of July was spent indoors, hiding in the air conditioning for us. Through the heat wave, and the drought, I have managed to keep the garden going. There were lots of nights spent running outside to move the garden hose around. Amazingly I have only lost one flower plant due to the weather. Not to bad!!

Last year all the tomato cages I tried, were useless. The tomatoes grew beyond their capabilities. This year, I found old "cattle panels" laying around the farm. I had Truckin' Man stake them into the garden, and they are working perfectly! 

Now, if only the tomatoes would turn red! 

 The Cattle panels are working perfectly as a trellis for the pea's and beans, also!

This is my first year raising pea's! I'm so excited! All the pea's are eaten in the garden though. Maybe one day some will make it in to the table!

Peppers are coming along. Slow, but sure!

This is my third year raising pumpkins. Finally successful! I have pumpkins everywhere! I must have finally found the right variety, or the right location for them.

 All this mass of green is pumpkin vines! They are taking over!

Time to go pick more veggies!!

Lilies

I love Lilies. 

All varieties.

All colors.

They are so beautiful.

It's so fun to watch them grow. 

The splashes of color.

I love them.