Early Harvest

If we'd stayed another month, we would have had a full harvest... Oh well. At least I know I can grow a garden!

Look at those tomatoes! Only half of them ripened by the time we had to harvest... anyone know how to make fried green ones? lol

 

Little baby cabbage - not even enough to make saurkraut! 

  

Yummy broccoli!

  

And cherry tomatoes! 

  

And pole beans...

  

And cucumbers...

The pumpkins were growing, but didn't get time enough to get big...

 

Neat to see what a pumpkin starts out as, though, isn't it?

 

Oh, well... there's always next year!

The Rabbit Died (I Wish!)

I've never liked the story of Peter Rabbit. We're supposed to be all sad and sorry for poor Peter, who was just looking for something to eat in Mr. McGregor's garden. And, of course, we know that the evil Mr. McGregor has previously shot and killed (and presumably eaten in a stew) Peter's father for getting into the garden.

But I've always leaned toward Mr. McGregor's side, and now I know why.

The rabbits ate my melons! (My organically grown very expensive melons, I might add!!)

BEFORE:



AFTER: (I planted some winter squash and pumpkins in their place - they're just sprouting)



Talk about evil! They did that in ONE night, and the next night, they ate all my beet tops! (Not to mention eating right through the twine I use to section off my squares!)

BEFORE (front row, closest to you):



LOOK how pretty they were!:



And now, AFTER Bugs n Company had their fill:



This is another box they've gotten into, chewed through the twine... although I don't know what they're eating, because I just planted these, spinach and lettuce... I think they just did it to say, "Hey, where's our food, lady?!"



I found a recipe for "rabbit tea" (which isn't made of rabbits, although the way I feel about fluffy bunnies right now, I'd be happy to drink them through a straw!) that's supposed to keep them from eating anymore. 2 TBSP cayenne pepper and 2 TBSP garlic powder, put into a coffee filter and secured, with 32 ounces of hot water, left overnight. Then you add a TBSP of dishsoap (to make it stick to the leaves of plants) and spray.

It didn't work. They'd eaten about half the beet tops when I sprayed it. The next day, they were all gone. Guess it just served to spice up their dinner! GRRR

Michael says he's getting a gun. I'm thinking...Good! :P

The pole beans are wrapping nicely around our wire though, kind of neat!



And the pumpkins I planted are growing gangbusters (I'm going to grow them over the side and see if it works!)



And my spinach is bolting in the heat (I need shade cloth!) but the bunnies don't seem to mind the bitter taste!



Well, at least the sunflowers are growing nicely.



Almost ready to flower!



And our tiger lilies (is that what these are?)



Are simply gorgeous.



Breathtaking!



Now I just have to figure out what's putting all the holes in my cabbages!

Gridlock

We've got grids on the garden beds! I can see why creating the square foot grids are really going to help with planting. I'm glad we went through the work to do them.



It was a perfect day for it, not windy, about seventy degrees, and Dmitri and Zoe helped a lot!

We drilled holes, screwed in eyelets, and then threaded twine through the holes and tied it off. The eyelets were Michael's idea - so no one would scrape themselves on nails or screws. And they worked out brilliantly! He also gave me the idea to thread the twine through instead of tying each individual piece of twine off. I love being married to such a smart man. ;)



Turned out pretty good!

I can handle this sort of gridlock!

Tomorrow, we plant... weather permitting.

We Have Garden Beds!

I wanted six, and got seven! Yay!



That stump you see in the forefront is a little crabapple tree we cut down, so it wouldn't shade our growing veggies.



Look at all that rich soil just waiting for my transplants! It's Mel's Mix, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost. I just have to create the grids, harden off my babies and get them used to the outside, and start planting!

WOOT!

We still have to build the vertical frames for our tomatoes and cucumbers and pole beans... but one step closer!

Eager to Transplant

My poor blog is as neglected as my little seedlings are lavished with love and attention! :)

We still don't have our boxes built for square foot gardening (I know, we're so behind!) and no chicken coop yet, either. We're waiting for our tax return, and it's been over a month, but still - nada. I hear it's taking longer this year, because of the rebates...

But I feel like the guy in the commercial, "It's my money and I WANT IT NOW!"

In the meantime, I'm doing what I can for my babies inside under the lights.

Tomatoes:



















Sunflowers:



















Peppers:



















Onions:



















Celery:



















Cabbage:



















Lettuce:



















Brussels Sprouts:



















Herbs:



















Nasturtiums (flowers):



















Mint:


















They're like little monsters, outgrowing their homes! (well except the mint, which just sprouted - but I hear mint gets very aggressive and invasive once it starts growing!)

Hurry, Mr. Taxman, I need a garden to plant these in before they take over the house!

I had a wonderful gift from a friend, who gave me lots of perennials to plant, so I've been doing that for the past two days. I'll get pictures soon... probably. Funny how little time I want to spend at the computer when it's so gorgeous outside! :)

Blooming Where You're Planted

I finally got around to planting. (I know, I know! I'm sooooo late!)

The littles loved getting their hands dirty, but they didn't have much patience with the tiny seeds. But it was totally fun recognizing seeds we often eat - like cucumber and tomatoes. It was also quite amazing to see broccoli, cauliflower and onion seeds - I'd never seen them before!

I know, how out of touch are we with our own food, right?

Opening each seed packet was like Christmas - what would we find inside?

I followed all the varied instructions while Michael hung my "planting light" over a table in the laundry room. It's a south-facing room (makes it nice and warm, with lots of sun - which the elder bugs love. *shudder* I hate those things, they crawl all over the inside of my laundry room windows!)

Zoe helped me plant, Dmitri helped Daddy "build stuff" and in the end, this is what we had:





























How exciting! That was Sunday, and now, three days later, we have babies!







































I put a heating pad under my peppers (these are peppers - and in case you were wondering, those are tacks. I didn't have labels, so I color-coded everything!) and it seems the heat was just right, and they've started to germinate.

This whole seed-dirt-water-light thing... it actually works!

Who knew!?

Garden Behind

Apparently, I'm behind in my gardening. In February.

FEBRUARY!?

Huh!?

I guess I'm supposed to be planting seeds right now inside the house, so I can transplant them later. Get a jump on the growing season and all. I'm in Zone 5B - which, according to this calendar (different state, same zone) means I'm behind.

I just ordered my seeds today. Hurry, little seeds, hurry! Now I have to go out and buy stuff to plant them in... sheesh. This whole gardening thing is... like... work! ;)

Reminds me of that Gone With the Wind line, "You're not sorry you stole, you're just sorry you got caught!" I want the garden... but do I have to do all the work!? *whine*

Where's the Little Red Hen when you need her?

Speaking of chickens... Michael is already gathering tools to build our coop. Guess I'll have to start looking into chickens soon, too. Maybe we're behind on that, too, who knows!

Such a big learning curve... eek!

Here's what will, theoretically, be growing in our garden this spring...

Broccoli Raab Seed

Oliver Brussels Sprout Seed

Snowball Y Cauliflower Seed

Marketmore Cucumber Seed

Jericho Romaine Lettuce Seed

Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach

Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage Seed

Celebrity Tomato Seed

Danvers Carrot Seed

Conquistador Celery Seed

Walla Walla Onion Seed

Ariane Pepper Seed

Camarosa Strawberry Crowns

Hearts of Gold Melon Seedling

Cross your fingers!