The Garden

I realize that this is the second post of the day, of the morning really, but the first was so melancholy that I wanted to write something else as well. I was reading my friend Christina's blog about her garden and it got me happy and excited about ours! As you can see from the picture, our garden is a decent size, and we've added on to it this year (notice the panhandle section with the dark topsoil). We have a brand new raspberry patch, our strawberries came back in large numbers (we had only planted 5 plants last year), some onions and potatoes popped up on their own this year left over from last years crop, and I've planted a variety of tomatoes and peppers as well as yellow and green zucchini. Eventually, our raspberries and strawberries will have taken over, so we'll have to add more area for the vegetables. We bought a rototiller this year with my mom and brother, which has made things so much easier than last year when I did it all by hand. Our dirt is very sandy at the top and in order to get to any good dirt you have to dig about two feet down. We've also had a few infestations from ants that we've had to take care of. Gibson, our puppy, has a strange habit of rolling in the ant hills and brings the ants inside clinging to his body or inside his ears. Tibby, the cat, loves this because it means she gets to play with them. Of course her version of playing is torturing them to death by slowly tearing off one leg at a time. She does this with flies and moths as well, or any insect that gets inside really.

You will notice that in our panhandle we have the two zucchini, and yes, I'm growing them in cages. You see, almost any plant will grow up if you guide it, and in order to save on space I've decided to try growing a portion of the plants up rather than just letting them sprawl out as zucchini are so prone to do. We'll see how this goes. You also see here the white fencing as well as the lumber barrier. Tim bought me these things for my birthday back in November for our garden this year. While putting it together this spring he said it is like building me my own little play place. I think he is almost more excited about the garden this year than I am! For one, he has helped me more this year, what with the enclosure, rototilling and all that manly stuff. Also, we transplanted raspberries from his sister and his dad's gardens. We'll get a few raspberries next year, and by the following year we'll probably be overrun by berries! There is nothing Tim likes more than fresh berries. We're also going to be acquiring an apple tree in the spring from our friends who own an apple orchard for our yard. We're very excited about that! Tim grew up with an apple tree in his yard, not good for eating off the tree as it was a transparent apple tree (very tart), but excellent for baking. We're hoping for a tree that produces fruit good for both baking and direct eating. We'll see what we get next year.

In addition to the garden, I've also potted two different tomatoes and two different peppers

for on the back deck. Last year's crop was pitiful due to the abnormally cold summer, but peppers have never been my strong suit. I love peppers, but for some reason my plants never get as large as others I know. They also don't produce as much fruit. The only ones I've had much luck with are the banana peppers and the jalapeños. I'm thinking I might need to invest in some of the miracle grow for vegetables to get them larger and healthier, but I almost feel as if that's cheating somehow. You see in this picture that the large tomato plant (celebrity) is so much bigger than the tomato next to it (window box roma), but the roma has some tomatoes growing on it already. The celebrity is starting to flower now as well. The peppers (a sweet banana and a lilac sweet bell) are starting to flower now too. Are you supposed to put miracle grow in when they are already flowering and producing fruit? I'm just not sure. The other peppers I have are a hot Hungarian wax, a jalapeño, and a sweet red bell. I really wanted a hot banana to offset my sweet banana, but last years didn't turn out hot at all. The other tomatoes I have are the sweet 100, a yellow pear, beefsteak, another large beef variety, and the jet star which grows 8 oz fruits. I'm also going to plant some more yellow onions. I've tried to grow red onions as well in the past, but they haven't done so well. My mom says that they don't usually do too well in our climate zone, so I'll just stick to the medium yellows for now. I've also thought about some large white onions, but I've only come across the yellows in the stores. I'm not going to plant any more potatoes than what are growing from last years plot. We just don't eat them enough to make it worth it. I've thought about beans again, but we don't eat them enough either. Why grow something we don't eat much of when we live so near farms and farm stands that sell them cheap for when we do want them? I'm also going to avoid corn again, I really didn't like dealing with the earworms. Those were nasty! We'll see how this years crop grows, and hope and pray for a hot summer!