Guess I'd better get on the ball and get some blogging done. I have no pictures this time, but I want to take some early garden pictures and post them here.
I had prepared the garden space as best I could over the previous couple of weeks. I tightened the fencing for the pole beans, raked up all the debris from last year and removed any remaining stakes and wire cages. I dug up the remaining strawberries and potted them. Last winter was brutal on them and out of hundreds of plants I had only 60 or so that I potted up for replanting . We reserved a small area of the garden for them to go back in. I will mulch them with straw this year to see if we can give them a good start for next year. They are June bearers, so they need the whole summer to gain strength for next spring.
We got the garden in last weekend over the span of 3 days because it kept raining us out.
This is how the weekend went. Saturday was a washout. Everytime we got ready to do anything it would downpour, so the garden was very soggy and we didn't want to rototill the mud, so we waited. We went to the livestock auction and bought some stuff... a tent, a drumel tool set, and a set of wire brushes for cleaning furnaces that Mr. D had his eye on. I went to the store and did a little shopping for paper products we needed... hmmm... I know... work at a paper company and buy my paper towels and toilet paper at the store? The problem is that right now I have no place to store an 80 roll case of toilet paper. When I DO have space I will buy it from work since it's way cheaper there. That was how our Saturday went. By the time we got home, the weather was clearing up but now I had 3 loads of soggy laundry on the clothesline and the garden was way too wet to work in. I left it there in hopes that Sunday would be better.
Sunday had a beautiful start. However we did have a bit of rain. By the time we got home from church around 2 pm the garden had dried out and so we went ahead with the tilling. I apologize to all those who believe that Sunday is a day of rest. In the farming world we do what we can while the sun shines. We have Sunday School, Morning Worship, we share a meal and then an afternoon Worship/sharing time this week was the closing Patch Club performance. Wonderful morning of fellowship and worship and learning. The afternoon is used for catching up on what we could not get done Saturday.
We got all the tilling done and pulled the plants from the greenhouse and got those down to the garden area and pulled the seeds we wanted in. We also cleaned up the greenhouse a little, rearranging stuff that gets literally thrown in during the winter. We also had a sick chicken in there this spring, so the coop area which is in the back of the greenhouse was opened up and stuff had to be moved around to accommodate for the sick hen. We washed up the tiller and got that taken care of and our Sunday was done. Whew! Hit the hay early that day.
Monday dawned grey. I thought we may not be able to get in the garden, so we got everything ready and then ran a few errands. Went to get milk at the farm, looked a few places for some Italian pole bean seeds which I had failed to purchase earlier (thought I had). By the time we got back home, the sun was shining and it had turned into a beautiful day. We got home and got going with the planting.
Planted this year:
4 types of tomatoes, 4 Gilberte Paste, 2 Beefstake (one of Joanna's she had started and one we picked up at the auction), 6 Jet Star (our favorite), and 4 Grape tomatoes for snacking :)
Roma Pole Beans (we couldn't find any seed to buy so planted some old seed *thickly* to see if they will come up... if not we may have to resort to another earlier pole bean.
Shell beans - two short rows
Beets - Lutz winter keepers that were started earlier in the greenhouse
Cucumber - we had some Straight 8 started, but they got fried one day in the little greenhouse, so had lots of pickling cukes left and planted all those.
Peas - Sugarsnap seed
a short row of carrot seed - for nibbling, radishes for that purpose too.
Brussel sprouts started in the greenhouse
Kale - seed
Swiss Chard - seed
Dill - started in greenhouse
Basil - started in greenhouse
We have about 60 or so squash plants still in the little greenhouse, so those will need to be planted, but we decided to plant the squash in old tires this year. Last year the squash took over in the garden and the other plants suffered, so this year they are banned. We are planting them on the hill where they will get lots of sunshine and they will be out of the garden with lots of room to spread out.
We have 25 old tires spread all over the top of the hill and we will fill those with compost and top soil and then plant with the baby squash plants. It's going to be another busy weekend!!
We've determined that there are 3 things that we need to have lots of this year for canning and freezing... squash, tomatoes, pickles. We are nearly out of all of these. We are out of canned tomatoes which Mr. D like to make tomato bisque on those cold winter nights. We eat squash with nearly every meal is we have time and Mr. D like pickles in any sandwich he eats, so we use lots of those and we are almost out. I also want lots of green beans in the freezer because with Brandon living close by its one of the vegetables he enjoys.
We've been eating dandelion greens for the past two weeks. Mr. D pulled them out of the compost pile. They are quite good with butter and a bit of vinegar. I have enjoyed them, though I make Mr. D clean them.
Happy Friday to you all.
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