REPLANTING

Yes, sometimes not everything you plant comes up. Maybe it was too dry or just an old seed. Anyway, I replanted some seeds yesterday. Mostly beans. There were some missing in my rows so I just replanted in between the little plants that are already up. I even found some beans sprouting underground that were just late so I left them. They will probably be up in a day or so.

Potatoes

Green beans

Eggplant

Chili peppers (can you see the little pepper?)

green onions

Kale 

                                                              http://eatmorekale.com/

My bachelors button

Collards from last year that came back

I have been running my sprinkler every other evening. It has been so dry.
Someone has either spilled some seeds where they shouldn't be or there are some wild squash plants or maybe melon growing all over between my rows. I'm not sure what they are at this point but I am just leaving them for now. 


I have even planted some peas in my flowerbed (instead of getting a flat of flowers) by my front door.

My peas in my garden

My potatoes are up and I covered them up with dirt so they have to come above ground again. I have heard that this will yeild a greater amount of potatoes. We will see.
Everything else in the garden is doing well and my pepper plants are flowering.

Powerful Purple carrots

I want to try some purple carrots. I heard they are very good in helping with damaged eyesight even more so than regular carrots. The gestational period is 70 days so I still have time. I want to plant them in my dads garden since his soil is sandy and mine is clay. Dad?? You have any room?

THE GARDEN IS IN

After no rain, my soil has hardened. I had to water my dirt to get it soft enough to till again.
So I went through it a couple times with my tiller and the boys and I finished planting.

Okay so some of my rows are crooked. 

We planted some from seed and some from plants

My peas are up

Herbs

My columbine

Blueberries

Roman is beat.

I put in a row of green beans with a few yellow beans too. Then we planted all my plants. These include: rainbow swiss chard, kale, broccoli, eggplant, tomato plants of many variety, a tomatillo plant, jalapeno, bell peppers, & Thai chili peppers. My other seeds include: yellow squash, radishes, more onions, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, pickles, (yes there is a difference), watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkin.

CORN PLANTING DAY

Today is corn planting day!! Once a year we gather at my dads to plant 2-2.5lbs of sweetcorn. That is over 22 rows of corn in my dad's garden. He has a garden that is 80 ft. wide and 123 ft. long. That is 9,840 sq. ft. of garden, almost 10 times the size of my garden. Everyone met to plant corn this afternoon. Two hole diggers, two planters, two hole cover uppers. (if that is a word) We took a couple of breaks and got it in pretty quickly. Then dad bought pizza for everyone. 

Dad's garden is 80'x123' (9,840 square foot) It's huge!

Even the kids helped

Why so much corn? Well.....we have always done it this way. Five families, over 18 mouths to feed. My dad shares his corn with all of us kids and we have enough all winter.


Each family ends up with 12-18 quarts of corn to put in their freezer. Corn picking day will be around the beginning of August. I will update my blog with that crazy day.

It was a good hot day to plant

Making sure the rows are straight

We had quite the assembly line going today.

Even BeBe (Mark's Chihuahua  likes to help)

I BROKE GROUND

After a long but mild winter, and many days in March or April that were warm enough to plant, I broke ground today. Its May 10th and rototilling is not one of my favorite jobs to do. I dread breaking ground each spring. It's hard work! My dirt is clay and yes I have been planting a vegetable garden for many years now. It is still something I'd rather not do. My garden spot is 18 ft x 60 ft. and this year there was some weed growing that seemed to cover the entire 1000 sq.ft area.  If anyone know what this is, please let me know. 

This is the weed in my garden this spring

This is the last bit of the weeds

It is a good ground cover and seemed to rototill up okay. I hope it was good for my soil.

I rototilled through the area twice and when I do I do not just walk behind my tiller. I have to push down and swing it back and forth from side to side. This helps to get the tilling deeper.

Even though I have clay soil, it has really loosened up over the past couple of years. I put all my kitchen scraps and wood stove ashes into the soil. I also put grass clippings, leaves and other matter on it whenever I can.

I use organic fertilizer only.

Potatoes waiting for their blanket of dirt

Pea seeds : I like to plant them a bit thick

Well I got the Potatoes planted. I think there is 20 different ones. One potato per hole and mound up the dirt.


I planted peas in the same row. There is nothing prettier than peas in your garden. I love it when they begin to blossom and have the curly vines and climb a bit. These pictures are just ugly now.

I also planted my onions. These are yellow onions. I can pick them small or let them get bigger. I always replant another onion after I pick one. My dad taught me that.

Yellow onion sets

Well my lettuce and spinach were planted a few days ago in pots. I thought I would do it that way this year. The seeds are already up.

Lettuce and Spinach

A string makes my rows straight

Spraying off the tiller makes it last longer.

A Clean rototiller! I bought this tiller used in 2004.

Done for the day!!