This year I am trying my hand at gardening. I have never done this before so it should be interesting to see if I can get anything to grow or if my garden project will be a lost cause.
One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show
Is it Spring yet? I am ready to play in the dirt again. I would not call last years garden a success, but it was a learning experience. Over the course of the next few weeks I will be planning my garden and preparing for the coming spring. (more…)
I am thinking about planting a few pumpkins in the garden next year. This year we spent $25 dollars on three pumpkins. Talk about outrageous. The largest and most expensive pumpkin was carved and will not in anyway benefit our family. The smaller pumpkins will be baked and will hopefully become home made pie or bread in a few weeks. (more…)
I had originally planned on doing a second planting of our garden for late summer and fall. However I was unable to do so because of my surgery and recovery. The garden has been neglected the past several weeks and needs a lot of work before it can be considered a garden again. Grass has once again overtaken the area. (more…)
In our garden I planted a few Icebox Watermelons. These melons are much smaller than a normal melon so they do not require as much space to grow. Icebox melons are round and twice the size of a softball. We have harvested and eaten one of the melons. When I cut it open it was a nice bright red. It was a bit on the seedy side but still really good. I like that the melons are small so that there are not left overs taking up room in the fridge or going bad. We have several more of the melons, and are hoping that they will continue to ripen up so that we can enjoy them.
Well my garden has about had it. I have been unable to work the garden for several weeks due to illness and surgery, and Caleb has started back to school and is dealing with limited mobility due to having an ingrown toenail cut out. David is too busy taking care of the rest of us and meeting deadlines for work to spend any time in the garden. To say I am disappointed with the results of the garden would be an understatement. (more…)
My yellow squash finally came in. The problem is that we had too much of it ripen at the same time. I hate to waste anything so I came up with a few ideas on how to use the squash. First, I cut a bunch of it into slices and flash froze it for use after the garden quits producing. Maybe next year I will take on the task of learning how to can. (more…)
A few weeks ago we planted bean seeds in containers to help foster their growth. Last night I transplanted about 1/2 of the plants into the garden area since the plants in the containers needed to be thinned. All of the beans we had planted previously died. I planted these new plants in a different location with the hope that the beans will grow. I did leave about half of the beans in the containers so I could see first hand how container gardening works. Next year we will probably do a combination of containers and traditional gardening. (more…)
Today I spent some time in the woods on our property picking blackberries. I love blackberries, but hate picking them because their bushes are so thorny. We have a ton of berries on our property. The problem is that the bushes are so thick you can not get to all of the berries. Many of the berries have to be left for the birds and other animals because they are just inaccessible due to the foliage of the area and thorns. I was able to pick enough berries to make blackberry cobbler for dessert one day this weekend. We should have a lot more berries ready for picking within the next week or so. (more…)
I have not had much time to work in the garden this week. My school schedule snuck up on me and threw me for a loop. However, my wonderful garden assistant, Caleb has worked in the garden for a little while each day in order to ensure that we continue to be able to reap the rewards of our little garden patch. Our first tomato should be ready by this weekend. It has seemed to take that tomato forever to go from green to golden yellow. Maybe I am just impatient. The cherry tomato plants are doing well and we should have a few cherry tomatoes ready for this weekend. (more…)
We are finally seeing the first fruits of our garden, in more than one way. Even though we do not have an abundance of vegetables coming from the garden I have enjoyed working in the garden. My garden has become a place of solitude where I can reflect and have a few moments of peace and quiet when I am not working and bonding with Caleb. My time spent working alone in the garden has become a time of prayer and meditation. I think we all need to have a place of solitude where we can turn off the world and just focus on God, and my garden has become that place. Its been hard work both physically and spiritually, but I am seeing not only the fruits of my labor I am seeing my spirit bloom again and that alone is worth the efforts of gardening this summer. (more…)