Today I hit up the Canton Farmers Market. This was opening weekend for the market.There were not many vendors there, but I have been told that as more vegetables ripen more vendors will be there to sell. I visited the farmers market almost every weekend last summer. I loved the prices and the taste of the home grown veggies. I am hoping that my vegetables will grow so that I will not have to frequent the market as often.
Gardening
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.
Farmers Market
Saturday, June 5th, 2010First Fruits
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Tonight with our dinner we had a salad that included some of the first fruits from our garden– radishes. Caleb and Madilyn did not like the taste of them. I thought they tasted fine, I am not sure what David thought. (more…)
How to grow grass…
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Plant a garden and grass will grow.
For three years David and I have tried to get grass to grow in our back yard. For three years all we have had grow is weeds. So when we planted a garden I knew we would have weeds growing and maybe some vegetables, I never expected my garden patch to be over run with grass. I have spent hours picking the grass out of the garden area. All of my vegetables are growing except for the peppers so there is hope if we can get the grass under control.
Any ideas???
Garden Update
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Today I planted:
Tomatoes
Watermelon
Peas
Cow Peas
All that is left to plant is the green bean. I hope to do those on Saturday. I keep forgetting to soak the seeds, which is recommended prior to planting.
A couple of the spice boxes are starting to sprout, as well as one of the cucumber hills and lettuce. Hopefully in a few weeks we will see lots of other plants growing in our little garden.
I did go ahead and buy tomato plants. I was not going to, but decided to purchase a few as well as planting seeds. Everything else was planted from seeds.
Garden Phase 4- Let the planting begin
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
Finally- we got some seeds and plants in the ground today. We planted about half of the plot and plan to plant the rest within a few days. So far we have planted the following items:
Strawberries
Carrots
Radishes
Potatoes
Yellow Squash
Cucumbers
Onions
Garlic
Lettuce (several kinds)
Peppers (several kinds)
Sunflowers
Carrots
Radishes
Potatoes
Yellow Squash
Cucumbers
Onions
Garlic
Lettuce (several kinds)
Peppers (several kinds)
Sunflowers
We have about 4 different kinds of beans/peas left to plant. We are not planting a lot of any one thing because we are not sure what will do well in our soil. So we are planting a wide variety so that we can see what kinds of things grow well in the space we have available for gardening.
Garden Phase 3
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
Phase 3 of our Garden has been by far the hardest to complete. Phase 3 included tilling the plot and adding garden soil to Georgia red clay mixture that we have in our yard. The tilling took hours. We started on Friday afternoon and worked ALL day Saturday. That poor tilling machine did not hardly get a break. David, Caleb and I all took turns tilling, of course David did most of this hard labor.
To my surprise Caleb did not complain 1 time. Madilyn enjoyed spending the entire day outside. She was content to play with Piglet and walk around the yard. For the most part she stayed out of the way and let us get the work done.
We decided not to bother with a fence for a couple of reasons. Most of the animals will just climb the fence and it would be costly and labor intensive. I went to Lowes to see what kind of deterrent I could find that would keep animals away. I ran into an older couple who have been gardening for years with a plot that backs up to the woods and they had a product . recommendation. So we are going to try this repellent that you spread around the outside of the garden area, . It is pretty smelly, but is safe for humans and household pets, it just is offensive to a lot of wild creatures. The good thing is that you do not put it on the plants that you hope to one day eat. So we will see if it works, if not I guess the animals will enjoy some veggies.
Garden Phase 2
Friday, April 9th, 2010
Wednesday we worked on Phase 2 of the Lloyd vegetable garden. Phase 2 was pretty simple. All we had to do was determine the size of the garden, the location and then prepare the area for tilling. We decided on a patch of land near the wood line of our property, that we could expand to a larger size in the coming years if we are successful this year. The current size of the garden is roughly 720 square feet.
Caleb and I then raked the area and removed rocks from the area in preparation for tilling. I expected complaining from Caleb since I got a lot of it the day before. I was surprised that he did not complain at all while we were preparing the area. It was a good time for us to just talk, we hardly ever get a chance to just hang out and talk. Working full time and going to school 2 nights a week really bites into my time.
With Phase 2 complete we are ready for Phase 3 which is to till the area and add nutrients to the soil. We are dealing with a lot of red clay, so it will be a chore to get the area ready for planting.
Garden Phase 1
Friday, April 9th, 2010
On Tuesday of this week we started Phase 1 of the first ever Lloyd vegetable garden. David and I have been married almost 19 years and have never planted a garden. I thought that I would give it a try this year. I will admit that I know NOTHING about gardening, and am just going to give it a try to see what if anything we can get to grow.
Phase 1: The first phase of our garden is now planted. I love to cook and love to use spices. I have read that spices are pretty easy to grow and that some people actually plant them in very decorative containers and grow them on their counter tops. Well, I decided I would start with 6 basic spices that I use all of the time and that I would plant them in outdoor containers on our back patio. So we currently have 6 containers on our back porch filled with soil and seeds, they look pretty ugly but hopefully soon we will have some sprouts. We planted:
- Basil
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Fennel
- Chives
- Cebolla– small green onions
I also planted 2 containers of tomatoes that will be transplanted and 1 container or Marigolds that will also be transplanted in a few weeks. Apparently Marigolds help keep bugs away. I know I could have bought Tomatoes and Marigolds that were already started but I wanted to start from scratch. That’s not to say I won’t go buy a few more tomatoes or marigolds that are already growing but for the time being we will just see what sprouts from the current planting.
I made Caleb do most of the work with this phase since it was pretty easy and I am suppose to be taking it easy for a few days.
It will be fun to cook using our fresh spices this summer.