Update

It has been too long since I wrote last...we are well in the middle of harvesting and it's wonderful!  I planted a second crop of peas, beets and onions (we should get those next spring) around August 1.  We also have a second crop of corn at Stick's house, I'm crossing my fingers it will be ready in time.

The watermelon vines all shriveled and died, but it looks like the watermelons have survived, even though they are pretty small.  Not sure what happened.   The corn is really good, but most of it has worms...I need to do some research to find out why.  Luckily they stick to the top, so they are still usable, but it would be nice not to have them.

So far this year, I have bottled apricots, apricot nectar, pickled beets, cherries, and beans.  I've frozen raspberries, made raspberry, apricot and strawberry freezer jam, and soon I'm going to undertake pumpkin, tomatoes, and salsa.  I'm excited :)

Snow!

Yes, it's snowing on May 24th! So much for everything I thought I knew about the timeliness of planting a garden! I can already see spots on my peppers and tomatoes...I hurried and covered them as soon as the snow started, so I don't know if they will make it or not. On a happier note, my beets and carrots that I thought were all gassed, most of them made it, so yay! It's time to start praying for the rest of the garden :)

Gas is not the new miracle grow

So when we were putting in our grass, one of the sweet little neighborhood boys (totally innocently I might add) wanted to help, so when he saw this yellow can in the yard he figured it must be water so he "watered" my beets and carrots. Since it was a gas can, I was sure everything was a gonner. I dug up where I could see the gas, but since it was a 5 gallon can, and I couldn't see exactly where it all ended up, I stopped short of excavating the entire garden. Fast forward to today, and what did I find??? Sprouts!!!! Of both the beets and the carrots. Half of the row is gone where I dug up the gas, but the rest are there...I am SOOO happy :)

What a difference!!!

Sod, Spinach, and the Window Wells.

Tomorrow, we are getting our sod. I have tilled, and tilled, till my tiller was tuckered (or maybe it was just out of gas. I have raked, and plucked out thousands of little tubers and roots that used to be day lilies and mint, and ferns, etc. I hauled in 3 truck loads of manure, and then I tilled some more, and then I raked some more, so I think we're finally ready :)

Our spinach is doing awesome! I think I found it's happy place in the yard.

And guess what?! I found something that likes growing in my south facing window wells....gourds!!! I told you I planted way too early in my basement, right?! Well, I put them in the window well, hoping they would be a little protected from the frost, and they are doing better than the ones I put in the walls of water. I am kind of excited to see how they do :)

The Monday after Mother's Day is when I'm planning on doing my plant buying for my garden.

Next year...

So I already have a long list of things I would do differently NEXT year :)

I wouldn't plant my squash, cantelope, watermelon or cucumbers inside until around April Fools Day. I am trying to resurrect the best looking plants in my water walls outside, but I don't have very high hopes. Looks like I'll have to buy a lot of my plants after all :(

The other problem is I planted too many things for the amount of growing light space I had. Once they outgrew their little one inch pony packs and I transplanted into 3" packs, space was sparce in my house , and as a result, they didn't get ideal light, and because they weren't all in one spot. And my watering suffered as well.

The broccoli, spinach, and peas are doing amazing! The peas I planted from seed have all poked through in the last week, so I'm excited to see the difference in the ones I planted from starts.

We also planted our gala apple, mormon apricot, and bartlett pear trees this weekend. I gave them some root starter, and I'll fertilize them later this week. I hope they do okay! I staked them up because they were starting to really lean. A neighbor of mine told me that was bad for them because the wind makes them stronger, but I think I'm going to take my chances for at least a year so they will straighten out. Hopefully that's not a mistake.

The secondary water came on this morning, so Bryan gets to work on getting the sprinklers up and going. Once they are done, we can get the yard leveled and compacted, and then hopefully, SOD!!!

Warming up...sort of :)

It's so nice having some days that have been nice enough to work outside all day! And I'm telling you, I am glad that one of my kiddies was on my back, so I only had to chase 4 (plus the two dogs) ;)

The garden is pretty much prepped (tilled, raked, and staked) and we have planted beets and onions. I don't know what to expect, but I'm hopeful.

I can tell you right now, I planted my squash too early. They are overgrowing their 2nd pots, and are just getting too gangly-looking. I'm going to start praying for them I think. The flowers I planted are doing well...I think they will do fine. The cucumbers and the cantelope are also doing well, but the watermelons died (I planted some new ones but they haven't sprouted yet). If I had it to do over, I would plant the squash and gourds about now instead of last month.

I got a seed planting guide from J&L...when I can get my scanner working, I'll post it on here.