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.

A casualty...

It has been such nice weather for the most part this week, that on Friday, I thought it would be good to give my plants some "real" sunlight. The high was around 50 degrees or so. The first half of the day, everything looked good, but I think it was a touch too cool for my little watermelons because about half of them withered :( Everything else did fine...I think the other plants were big enough that they handled the temperature better, but the watermelong were just too small. I'm going to buy some more this week and try again.

Early spring stuff...

Wow, it's been a busy week in the garden! Many of my squash, gourd, and melon starts outgrew their pods, so this week I have been busy transplanting. I didn't expect that many of them to turn out, so I've been farming a bunch of them out to friends, because my basement is starting to look like a scene from "Where the Wild Things Are."

Last week I planted peas from seed, and this week, I am trying an experiment. I bought pea starts from the nursery, so I'm going to see how the starts compare with the plants from seed. I also transplanted my spinach, and planted some onions today. It's been around 50 degrees all week, so it's good planting weather for the cold plants.

Yesterday, I tilled our garden and raked it again...it has about a 6-10" base, so I'm hoping that will be deep enough. I only hit the sprinklers 3 times :( I love my tiller, though, can I just say that. I tell everyone, so you've probably already heard this story, but about 4 years ago, I found it on ksl.com for $25...in Preston, Idaho :) So I packed up my then 3 children and we drove 2 hours and hauled home my beautiful yellow tiller. It's probably older than me, but I love it so so so much. If I don't get to play in the dirt in heaven, I am going to be very upset.

I also planted my asparagus!!! I had to dig a 6" trench, put the roots in, and bury it with 3" of dirt. As it emerges from the soil, you are supposed to bury it a bit more, until by the end of the summer, you have filled in the 6" trench.

It doesn't look like my garden boxes are going to happen this year...we had to buy a washer and dryer instead...grrr. So I'm hoping since I tilled so deep that the beds will still turn out okay. Once we get our taxes, I am going to Lowes to buy my trellis stuff. I already bought the stakes, so I'm excited to get going on this.

We are also getting ready to sod the yard which is no small task considering our yard looks like an overgrown Eden. But I'm excited to have a place for my kids to play...finally.

Coming right along...

Everything has sprouted except for the petunias! The butternut squash are going crazy! I have already had to thin them a little I am going to have to give some folks some of these starts because I really didn't think they would all come up. Yay for green in my basement :)

My herb garden...

My father-in-law made these planters a while ago out of semi-truck brake drums. They are awesome, I must say. They are all rusted and awesome-looking, and anyting will grow in those things. I had the tomato plant from the blue lagoon last year (see above)....it was enormous! It was so big, there is actually a cage in there believe it or not. So this year, I am going to place them stragetically around the yard and put my herbs in them: Basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, and cilantro. I am also going to try some in my house, but I'm going to wait until I can buy some good established starts from the nursery so they'll have a better chance of making it. I'm excited :)

They're up!

Sorry, still no camera, but here is what sprouted in the last couple of days:

Spinach

Baby's Breath

Lupine

Butternut Squash

We have been keeping the little plastic 'greenhouse' cover on, but I think I goofed putting different varieties into each of the different pans, because I think you are supposed to take it off once they sprout, and obviously now, some have sprouted and some haven't. Oops.

Also, for fun, I think I am going to grow some wheatgrass with my kids. I have heard it is super easy, and it looks pretty too for decorating, so in a few days here, I may give it a whirl :)

Our Garden/Yard Map

This is kind of hard to see, but here is our yard. On the far right or east side, we have cinderblock planters that line the driveway, and that is where I am putting my peas (they will theoretically grow up the fence), and then in a couple months plant my squashes, gourds and melons. On our far west side, we have our parking strip, and that is where I am going to make some garden boxes and plant roma tomatoes, celebrity tomatoes (my neighbor told me this is one of the best varieties for our climate as far as being drought and bug resisitant, and being good for canning), tomatillos & jalapeno peppers, cucumbers, and our Big Max pumpkins! Also on the west side, we have a little hill which is where the lettuce, spinach, and carrots will go. Behind that in a big square will be the corn.

Tithing blessing of the week!

We have a 2nd abandoned driveway on the west side of our house, which is where the bulk of our yard is. We have been planning on scraping off the gravel and clay and planting sod. As Bryan started this process, the clay was upwards of 12" deep in most areas, so yeah, that's a lot of digging. So we took a sample of our soil from the old driveway (I am going to post pics soon so you'll know what I'm talking about) to J&L (we love that place) to test the pH. Turns out, it has a zero base, but as long as we add some manure (oh how we love our rotting horse manure), we don't have to scrape it at all, they said the sod should grow just fine! This will save us renting a bobcat, and a dumptruck, and probably a back surgery or two! :)

FYI, for those of you who care, horse manure (old, white and black stuff...not the straw-filled new stuff) is the bomb! There are several places locally that you can actually get it for free (email me if you are interested @ tiffany.skelton@comcast.net). It is awesome awesome awesome stuff, it has very little (if any) odor as long as you get the decomposing stuff, and really does a lot for bulking up your plants. I swear by it.

Tidbits I Learned Today From The J&L Nursery Lady

• Today at J&L, I asked if there was a particular brand of seeds that was more aclimated for where we live than another, and she told me that pretty much all of the seeds come from the same place in Mexico, and they hand pick the varieties that do well here, so if they carry it, it will work for here. Makes sense :)
• I am going to try asparagus, which takes a couple of years to be able to get a crop from it, but the time to plant is between March 1-15, which is when the starts come into J&L, so that's my plan. She also said to always start that from a seedling, and not seed (or bulb or whatever it is). I guess it can be pretty temperamental.
• I was going to also try broccoli and cauliflower, but since we have such a huge snail problem, I may wait until next year when we have that more under control. She said if I was going to do plant those, I would plant that also around the first part of March.
• She said any time in the next 3 weeks is the time to plant peas, she's planting hers this weekend!
• Carrots and spinach are also good ones to plant here pretty quickly.
• I talked corn with her. She told me that you have to plant a minimum of 5 rows (18 inches apart) of corn of each species to have them pollinate right (otherwise you end up with that inbred-backwoods looking stuff). If you do more than one variety, they have to be 40 feet apart. They are supposed to be in full sun. In this yard, that could be a problem. We shouldn't plant that until closer to mother's day.
• Also, I am trying to start seeds in my basement under our plant light. She said the two biggest things that make seeds not turn out are having the light more than 12 inches above the plant, and overwatering. She suggested using a spray bottle every day. Any more water than that will rot the seeds. Here is what I planted:

Cucumbers (I usually do these first 3 from plants, so we'll see what happens)

Watermelon

Cantelope

Hubbard Squash - freezes good for pies and baby food

Butternut Squash - awesome for cooking, soups, baby food, etc.

Spinach (this is an experiment...it recommends planting this straight outside...I just want to compare the two)

Birdhouse Gourds (these are sooooo cute! I can't wait)

Gourds (I love to decorate in the fall with these)

Baby's Breath - perennial

Petunias - annual

Impatiens - annual

and...Lupine - perennial

Day One.

I am starting my garden blog so I can keep better track of what works and what doesn't, and maybe get some ideas from others on how to do it right/better. We have a tricky yard, so we are having to be a bit creative to find places to put things, as well as having the forethought of how we can rotate things in future years so we don't burn all the nutrients out of the soil.

So, here's to a bountiful harvest this summer! :)