The Garden Started

Oh my Goodness! I feel a little piece of me coming back alive! This is going to be a GREAT gardening year. I am starting out on time finally. I am so excited!! Brandon, Makaila, and Bryson were such a great help. We planted quite a bit. Today we planted:
          1. three kinds of potatoes; Yukon Gold, Gold Rush, and White Superior
          2. four types of onions; Sweet, yellow, white, and red
          3. two types of turnips; Seven Top and Purple Top White Globe
          4. Purple Passion Asparagus
          5. Beets

The only reason we stopped working in the garden was because the sun went down.

 Hey Sun! We weren't done! 

Home made Garden Stakes

Garden stakes doubled in price from last year making it necessary for me to come up with an alternative. This is Daniel's idea, but the kids and I are the ones who get to make them. Bryson wanted to be my picture model to show how simply easy these garden stakes are to make.

All you need is wire hangers and wire cutters. These wire cutters are too small for these hangers so make sure you have the right size or it will be very hard work. We end up with lots of wire hangers and can always get more when we need. So this is a project that cost us nothing except time and energy.

First, cut the top off of the hanger and straighten the rest of the hanger.
Next, cut the straight piece into four equal pieces (or as equal as you can get without stressing too much about it)
Finally, bend each piece into a stake. Then your done. How simple was that! Now its time to put them in the ground.
This is the finished product. These do not take a lot of time to make. Just hand muscles. Good luck! And have fun!

My Garden Variety 2011

So I am done with the planting of this summer's garden. Now it's just time to tend and harvest. YIPEE!!! I will plant a fall garden as well and I've been gathering hints on how to have a successful fall garden and how to harvest earlier in the spring. That will be another post. Right now, I feel the need to list everything that I planted at this time. In my garden right now is:

1. Kale - the rabbits love it
2. Cabbage - green and purple - another rabbit favorite
3. Lettuce
4. Onions
5. Broccoli
   
6. Brussels Sprouts
7. Potatoes
8. Bell Peppers - red and green
9. Egg Plant
10. Okra
11. Cucumber - Straight 8 and National Pickling
12. Snow Peas
13. Beans - Yellow Wax Bush Bean, Stringless Green Bean, Tendergreen Improved, and Harvester
    
14. Pumpkin - Fairytale, Amish Pie, Mega Pumpkin
    
15. Squash - Zucchini, Butternut, Acorn, Crookneck
16. Watermelon - Sugar Baby
17. Cantaloupe
18. Strawberries - Junebearing, Everbearing
19. Spinach
20. Tomatoes - Big Boy, Early Girl, Big Cherry, Slicing, Lemon Boy, Yellow Pear
    

Spinach

Okra

Lettuce

Brussels Sprouts

Broccoli

These pictures are from last week so everything is a little bigger. We've been in a drought so keeping up with water is hard. I've been trying to figure out a better way to water to no avail. This weekend we got a good rain. I am so happy. I sure hope Everything yields well. I am very excited about it all. We need this food. I can't wait to can what we don't eat fresh.

A little Garden News

So much is going on and I desperately want to write about it every day, but I want to include the pictures I've been taking and in that lies the problem. Oh my my! All this technology is overwhelming at times. I planted the last of what I can for this summer and I'm very disappointed in how things are turning out so far. Everything has been planted multiple times and some things just haven't made it at all. The succession planting is not the problem since I will be getting the produce spread out a little more. Some things are looking very good.

This is the onions. They have already gone to seed. They look good, but unfortunately they will not be getting any bigger. Bummer! In the background you can see another part of the garden. It looks all green but really there are more weeds than food. Bummer again.

This one was taken last week. The cabbage is one thing that is looking really good. Except the fact that the rabbits keep eating them. We have a field full of them and can't seem to find a way to keep them out. I'm still working on it though.


The Snow Peas finally are looking like something is going to happen. I have gotten two little pickings so far, just enough to make stir fry and eat a handful. Boy are they good!!!