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Apr. 30, 2009
Have you planted your garden?
This morning has been difficult to get up and around. It's raining and I think this weather would permit me to sleep all day!
My plants are going to LOVE all the moisture! I've planted a garden, my first, full of cool weather plants. The two varieties of lettuce, French Breakfast Radishes, spinach, Swiss Chard, 3 varieties of carrots, broccoli, onions, celery, cucumbers and tomatoes (though tomatoes are not a cool weather plant, or so I have been told) have all popped up. Some sections of the lettuce are ready to harvest as baby greens.
One of two 12'x 4' raised vegetable garden beds. My dad drove over from Arkansas to help with this first bed. It was an excellent lesson for my 4 sons, Baruch, Jackson, Matteo, and Sevey. After the completion of this first bed, the boys built the second raised bed on their own.
 Here are all of my raised beds and halved whiskey barrels. You can just make out the corner of the second, barren, raised bed the boys built. They did a great job! When the rain lets up a little, we will be planting warm weather plants like green beans, squash, zucchini....
As you can see, my backyard is tiny. The opposite end of my yard, in the northwest corner, has a lovely peach that produces abundantly.
Pictured here are my rows of lettuce. It's interesting how the west end of the bed seems to grow faster than the rest of the row. This is holding true for all planted rows.
The tiny wisps to the right of the lettuce are onions, while the tall, red mulched, greenery are Phlox.
 French Breakfast Radishes... The bulbs are a lovely shade of red.
 Within these two halved whiskey barrels you can see the outer circle of beautifully laced carrots; in the center are two varieties of tomatoes; German Riesentraube and Orange Flesh Purple Smudge. I planted the carrots and tomatoes in this arrangement in my attempt to companion plant. We'll see how this works out. Before planting any of my vege's, I read a book titled Carrots Love Tomatoes.
 Below are the cucumbers. It's about time to find them a trellis! Perhaps I will move them closer to the picket fence, then again, maybe not. There's an awful lot of shade from the Mulberry tree.
If you look closely, there is a barrel next to the cucumbers though you cannot see what grows there. That barrel contains my eldest sons Jelly Melon, properly known as Kiwano, or African Horned Melon. We purchased the seed, and most of the other seeds, from Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds. The Jelly Melons are doing as well as my cucumbers. Baruch is so excited! I enjoy watching him work his barrel of melon friends.
 On the east side arbor grow grapes. I don't know their type since they were already established before we moved here 3 years ago.
 As you can see, there are a lot of grapes on the vine! What a blessing! We have consistently used them in our juicer, seeds and all, with slices of apple -- VERY tasty! This year, I hope to collect and preserve the leaves to make dolmas.
 Here on my fence are wild blackberries. This is the first year blackberries have grown along my fence. Last year, they selected the underneath side of the Mulberry tree to grow. All along my fence are patches of blackberry. God is truly blessing us with a bounty of goodies for such a tiny yard!
 Last, but not least.... here sits my raspberry vine. I haven't planted it yet. I had hoped we would have sold our home and moved to the country but that hasn't happened. As you can see, I have decided to go ahead and plant to my hearts desire and will do the same with this handsome raspberry. I'm not sure the economy will allow my home to sell. Perhaps, in the end, that will be a blessing, too. Father knows best!
Now, if I could figure out how to incorporate a few hens in my backyard, we would be set! Though the neighbors may howl it would be a welcomed addition to step into the backyard and collect eggs for breakfast. 
I hope, if you have been thinking of vegetable gardening but don't think you have the room, you will be encouraged and reconsider. It's not only family fun but theraputic as well.
Abundant garden blessings! |
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May. 14, 2009 - Untitled Comment