Planting the Early Crop

Saturday March 28th was our planting day, a little late but better late than never. It took a little longer than I expected to fix the irrigation and prepare my rows, but we were finally ready! 

Pea planting is such a fun kid job. The "seeds" are just the dried peas so they are recognizable, and kids fingers are just the right length to push them to the desired planting depth.

We also did a row each of lettuce, chard, broccoli, spinach, and kale. I already can't wait for the garden fresh produce back in my kitchen!

It's About Time...

I need to do better tracking the garden progress! I always look back to previous years and wonder why I didn't take more pictures. It's helpful to look back and see how big things were and what to expect year to year.

I am tickled to say this is the best luck I've ever had with broccoli and spinach! Both are producing bumper crops. It about broke my heart to thin the broccoli, and it's still about twice as thick as it should be. I have been picking gallon ziplocs of spinach and washing and freezing them for smoothies. And I can't keep up!

The rainbow carrots, beets and two rows of bush beans are on their way.
 

My indoor planting of tomato seeds wasn't very fruitful, and I talked to a lady who just plants seeds in the ground in May, so I thought I'd try it! Tomatoes grow so fast anyway, what's a couple weeks head start? The left row is an indeterminate variety that I hope to stake, and the right row varies more, with two cherry tomatoes and a Roma I got from my neighbor, and a bush variety from seed. 

We planted three types of pumpkins this year, and I'm always amazed that the plant itself is an indicator of fruit size--small, medium, and large! The far mound is an heirloom carving variety, the middle a 200 pounder, and the close a 1000 pounder! We planted them outside the garden in a large flower bed area, and we'll let them just go wherever they want. Should be interesting to watch and see!

We put our giant sunflowers on the opposite side of the garden this, closer to the front of our house. It will be fun to see them more as we come and go. Behind them you can kind of see the zucchini mounds (I have 5 growing right now and I need to pull a few or I'll be kicking myself!) and a whole row of butternut squash.

The peas are flowering and turning to pods. We squealed with delight when we spotted all those sweet peas growing!

The kale is out of control, and I love it! We have used it in smoothies, salads, and today we made a batch of kale chips that got scarfed in a matter of minutes. Requests are in for more tomorrow.

At the top of this picture are the 6 red potato plants that are doing fabulously well! In the same row are four bell peppers and an Anaheim from Peggy. Down the middle of the picture is the melon row, with watermelons at the top and cantaloupes at the bottom. This is the best start to melons we've ever had, so we're excited!

Not everything is doing well, though. My cucumbers never came up from seed, and I almost gave up on the onions, but now I see about 7 or 8 that might make it. I'll need to separate them soon so they can start to bulb out, so we'll see how that goes.  
 

The corn experiment is on! I planted each row a week apart to extend our harvest. Hopefully it helps!

The view of the whole thing from the corn side. I'm pretty happy with it overall this year. Let the fun begin! As I've been writing this, I've realized just how much produce I'm going to have on my hands in a few months!

My favorite thing is when my kids stay nearby and help. Ella takes the most interest right now and knows what everything is and how it's doing. Tonight she caught a butterfly and a ladybug. Jake pulled some lettuce for me (so helpful) and they all gathered strawberries and helped me eat them. Yum!

Planting the Cool Season Veggies

Last weekend the man of the house got the garden tilled and cultivated furrows along each drip line. What a good guy!

I have to say he is very particular and measures every row with his measuring tape to make them perfectly straight and parallel to each other. I tease him, but I'm secretly happy he makes things exact because it looks so good!

I was pretty antsy to get my seeds in the ground. Ideally I would have planted my peas a few weeks ago, but of course the amending and tilling had to come first! I planted two rows of peas ('Burpeeana Early') 6 inches apart (one on each side of the trellis) and spaced them about 2 inches apart.

Ella Bella was my "pea pusher." Her finger is about 2 inches long (which was the required planting depth) so she just pushed each one into the soil as far as it would go and it was planted! She was a great helper.

I also planted a row each of kale 'Dwarf Blue Curled Vates', spinach 'Space Hybrid', broccoli 'Sun king', and lettuce 'looseleaf blend'. This year I thought I would try something new and I only planted 1/3 of the lettuce row, and in a week I will plant another 1/3, and in another week I will plant another 1/3. I heard this can possibly extend the length of time you can harvest lettuce before it turns bitter. I am not sure if it all goes bitter above a certain temperature, or just according to age... so it's a bit of an experiment. Stay tuned and I'll share the verdict!

Fall Planting + Grandma's Garden

The front end of my garden was feeling really bare, so I took my mother-in-law's advice and tried planting a fall garden for the first time! I am really excited about it. 

She planted at the end of July and says that is ideal for good development before the frosts come. I did it the second week of August because that's how long it took me to decide, find the seeds, and get them in the ground! We planted broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and peas again. I am so excited about these cool season veggies because they just don't last long enough in the spring!

As I was writing this I went out and checked the garden and there are pea and lettuce seedlings! Aaahh, the miracle of life never ceases to amaze me!

I took some pictures of her garden while we were visiting Grandma a few weeks ago. She has the same feeling that I do, that gardening is therapeutic and good for the soul!

Cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, lettuces, cabbages, chard, cantaloupe... they make a pretty display in this square foot type planting.

Two sizes of pear trees. She is good at thinning them and they are getting big and juicy!

Maddie knew where to look for her favorite treat--red raspberries!

Maddie's favorite thing to do at Grandma's is hang in her maple tree in the front yard.

Ella wanted to try it too.

Even Mike couldn't resist the easy-to-climb branches! Fun memories. 

How Does the Garden Grow?

This year the garden is kind of an afterthought. As in, I think of it after I feed, clothe, clean, and chase after four kids. Luckily the drip system waters it daily and I just have to remember to make sure things are going alright. I love to check on the garden and usually try to take the kids with me to discover what's going on.
 

Last Saturday, we discovered that the peas were ready to eat!

Ty tried them for the first time, and soon realized what we all know--that garden peas are deliciously sweet! He loves them and has devised his own ways to get inside the shell. 

The zucchinis are doing well and beginning to develop baby zucchinis!

The mammoth sunflowers are still small, but growing quickly.

The pumpkins (that I didn't plant until June!) have sprouted.

The seedlings of the giant pumpkins are, well, giant. 

The strawberry patch is beginning to establish itself. Hopefully it will take off one of these days. 

The corn came up a little patchy, but I re-seeded and hopefully it will fill in. Not that I'm worried we'll be short on supply... last year we got 91 ears from this plot!

Early Veggies

It was time we planted our cool-season veggies. We squeezed some garden time in between all the Easter festivities.

We planted our peas, broccoli, spinach, and lettuce from seed. Mike fixed some problems with the drip sprinkler system and got it all running. We're in business!

This little guy is all about digging in the dirt. Such a good helper, huh?

Peas Please

I have been wishing the garden was ready for weeks so I could plant my peas! It's been such a warm spring I feel like they are going to fizzle just as they get established because of the heat. Ideally I would have planted them 3 weeks ago, but acquiring the manure, spreading the manure, letting the manure dry out, and tilling it in took longer than we planned for.

Our awesome neighbors let us borrow their huge tiller. It didn't take long--in fact I ran to the store one evening thinking it was getting too late, and when I got back Mike had it all done!

Yesterday I found some time to rake it smooth and make a few rows.

Finally, I got me some peas in the ground. Now I'll leave the work to mother nature.

One little interesting note... they were supposed to be planted 2" deep, and as I was spading them in I realized my spade has the inches marked. How handy is that?!

A Pea Story

Since I planted my peas at the beginning of May I have been asking my husband to build me a trellis. We had one from the old house but he thought it was too rickety and cheap looking. Sure enough, we put it up and a windstorm blew it over that night.

The peas were getting tall and starting to flop over on each other. It was time for action! Mike took some work off last week and one of his projects was to work on the garden. He didn't really tell me what his plan was, but when Mike puts his mind to something, he goes all out.

He came home with a pile of lumber. After cutting each piece to size he did the decorative cuts on top. He measured, dug, and cemented each post.
Then he proceeded to build the fanciest pea trellis I've ever seen. Each panel is screwed into the posts and can be unscrewed and removed in the off season.

These are some lucky peas.

Incidentally, it was just in time for the setting of the first pea pods. The girls and I enjoyed a little snack yesterday morning.

There is something thrilling about opening that first pod and seeing the sweet morsels inside!

While we're talking about Mike's projects, I'll also mention he rented a Bobcat last week and cleared the weeds off the whole lot! He did a bunch of grading and built me a burm/island on the corner. This is the first step in the sprinkler installation process... now we have to keep the weeds clear while he works on trenching. He's been working hard!