Gardening Skills

 We learned a few more things about our gardening skills this year.

1. Compost is important and very beneficial!
2. The back of our house makes things nice and hot for bell peppers and jalapenos.
3. Egg shells to keep slugs out does not work!
4. We cannot grow lettuce because of the slugs!
5. Onions are easy to grow!

We are going to extend the garden section on the back of our house next year. We are also going to try some garden boxes on the fence to grow lettuce so the slugs can't get to them (hopefully). We had a pretty good yield but we learn more each year and apply it to the next year.

 

I really love growing my own food and canning it or eating it.

Tomato's That Didn't Die

Two Friday's ago was a beautiful day. We could not help ourselves but to play outside as much as possible and hang out as a family. We decided to plant the few tomato plants left that didn't look totally dead after the weather dropped to freezing temperatures. We put walls of water around the tomatoes as well to help them grow. They are actually doing pretty well and bouncing back nicely!

Benjamin loves to run around the yard and do his thing and help us with whatever it is we are doing.

We decided to put Benjamin in the shorts since it was such a nice day. The thing though is that he didn't seem to care for them. At times I would find him pulling at his shorts trying to pull them down to his ankles. When his pants get stuck pulled up he has to pull them down and he seemed to think that was the issue with the shorts. Too funny! 

Garden 2010 Ready To Go!

We worked in the garden last Saturday as it was a beautiful day!!! I cannot express how much I love the area where we live. When you have these gorgeous day's like last Saturday and today it just can't compare.

Anyways I did some weeding and cleaned up the flower bed and then we went shopping. We stopped at Lowe's to get a few things and figure out what we wanted/needed. We got some compost to add to the garden and a few flowers and weed killers.

After Lowe's we ventured out to Flower World!!! I love Flower World! If you haven't gone there you must. It's gorgeous and a great trip for kids. There's flowers and animals to look at by this pond. It really is a must! We picked up several more flowers for my front yard and some more starters. Like Broccoli and Tomatoes...

We stopped back at Lowe's to get Bell Peppers since we couldn't find any really at Flower World. And then we went home...eventually.

When we got home we added the compost to the garden and mixed it all up. We planted what we could and then went inside to get the seeds ready for planting.

It feels so good to have my garden done and out of the way now. I won't have to worry about it down the road. All I have to do now is water it. :)

Let's see we planted...oregano, green onions, cilantro, chives, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, potatoes, corn, lettuce, melon, cantaloupe, spinach, tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, and green beans. I'm excited to eat delicious vegetables again from our yard. Hopefully I can keep up with the production this year seeing how I won't be working this summer but I will have an infant. Still not sure how things will go but I am very excited.

My Own Garden

I've wanted to have my own garden for years now. Our church leaders have counseled to have your own garden and to eat from it and put food away for food storage. You never know what the future holds so having a 3 month (or more) supply of food storage is always a good thing.

Over the past few years I have been learning to can jams, corn and a roasted red pepper spread. My Aunt Cindy got me a book all about canning filled with recipes for canning when I got married. I've used it every single time I've done any canning and have marked several things I want to try. I'm still waiting to get my mom up here with me while I am doing some canning to learn from her. According to Aunt Cindy my mom is a renowned canner (she's got enough jars, I was blessed to take from her abundance).

This summer I get to try some of the recipes I've been wanting to try. Over Memorial Day Weekend Jared and I worked on building a box for our new garden. My mom had introduced me to Square Foot Gardening (http://www.squarefootgardening.com/) and I wanted to try it. So I did some research online and ordered the creator of Square Foot Gardening's book for more information so we could build our garden. We have a small backyard and so this appealed to me greatly to be able to grow tons of different things in such small places.

We made a 2 and a half foot by 10 foot box and put it in the corner of our backyard by our patio. We made several trips to Lowe's that day for lumber, the soil parts and seeds. It was a lot of work but we enjoyed ourselves, had fun and felt a great accomplishment once it was built and put together.

I soaked the seeds we got to give them a jump start and got them planted. I made a grid of everything we planted so I would know what I was growing. It is also helpful for the section that failed. I still need to plant something in that space.

It has been a lot of fun watching my garden grow. We also have tomato plants on the side in big planters of their own. I can't wait to harvest and make salsa, spaghetti sauce, eat fresh salads, and cook with fresh ingredients from my own yard. For those who know me really well my taste buds have usually rejected the thought of vegetables but they have been changing and I am excited to eat more veggies. The most surprising thing is my craving for tomato's (I can't tease Ashley and Sam anymore...I'm not quite to eating them like an apple yet but time will tell).

We are growing tomatoes in planters, strawberries in a hanging basket and basil, chives, cilantro, corn, broccoli, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, cantaloupe, melon, green beans, green onions, lettuce, spinach, hot peppers and bell peppers. I had oregano planted but it never grew. So I will try it again...I just need to grab the seeds and go plant them.

Gardening can be a lot of work, but I feel like I am doing something that will benefit my family and friends. Each week as things get bigger and start to produce I get more and more excited. Jared checked out the hot peppers tonight and there is tiny baby starting. We will have a ton of tomatoes. Jared even ate a leaf of spinach fresh from the garden and had me taste the cilantro. I love the smell of cilantro.

Happy Gardening!