Gardening

It is gardening time around here.  Hard work, but, so rewarding!

I think we will be outgrowing out 3000 sq ft garden this year, just a hunch, but time will tell!  So far we have lots of potatoes coming up – plants are about 8-12 inches tall! 

We planted three times more of these than last year, to include Dakota Pearls, Red, and Yukon Golds.  We are hoping for a huge crop and a few more meals this year!

 

We planted a row of lettuce, but we only have a few random plants growing, we will plant more to fill in this weekend, more lettuce and spinach, I think.

Radish are a family favorite (except me) and the kids planted these, can you tell??

(They are clustered a bit)

We also have onions and garlic that went in in Feb, and it is all looking pretty good.  Recently we planted (or replanted) Kale, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Sugar Snap Peas, Purple Hulled Peas, Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini, Cantaloupe, and lots of herbs.  Not sure what will do well this year, but after this year we should be able to forecast our needs and how much to plant a bit better.

I have finally kicked the cats out of  my raised flower bed.  They have been using it as a cat box, NO MORE!  I not have wire over the top to break this yucky habit, so that I can have some flowers grow.  I also put in a few herb seeds, hoping to have an herb garden for some great cooking!  Of course, the chickens may like my herbs too, and keeping them out may be tougher than the cats!

From this point, we have a bit more planting, we need to get the tomatoes we have started in the ground along with all the pepper plants we started inside. 

We have about 40 tomato plants – hoping they all live to go in the ground and then produce lots of fruit!

 

We took the plunge and invested in some fruit trees as well this year.  So far we have 8 peach trees, 4 apricot trees, and 2 plum trees.  I am so hoping we do not have a drought like last year and these trees make it!!  The promise of future fruit is worth it!

(Here is a plum tree in a wire cage, tough to see, but I see lots of green leaves, a good sign)

Notice my hens in their community bath?  More on that later though….