Gardening Update

Spring is fast winding up and summer is coming quickly. The garden is coming around! Looking good and growing!

The peas now have a fence for support and our growing up it. Most are about 12-18" high.

This tire was rescued off the neighbors dump pile. It is for a tractor. We placed it in the now sunny, side yard and have trimmed off the inside rim, filled it with dirt and have planted pole beans. If it works out, we will show you more pictures as it grows.

The weather has been so wet that we decided to plant the first opportunity we had. We had actually hit the average amount of rain for the month by May 5th. We had many big storms after that, so we have just about completed the wettest spring on record. After 1.5 days of sunshine and much rain in the forecast, we decided to get things in the ground. Of course it started sprinkling while we were working. Paul was busy turning over the soil, mixing in the sand into the root bed, and the manure into the other beds. That young man is a hard worker.

This year we had a friend who bought an old horse boarding stable. It had lots of well aged manure and he brought us a truck load full. It is great stuff. We are using it on all the beds and plants on the place, except the blueberries. They don't like manure, too alkaline.

These are the new beds in the side yard. It doesn't get totally full sun, so Michelle did a little research and found which veggies can handle less than full sun. Most of them are int he cruciferous family. We planted lots of broccoli, some brussel sprouts and kale. We put some onions in and some lettuce also. We are hoping to get a third bed in here soon. We just need the wood. We have ever bearing strawberries in the baskets. The children enjoy those more than flowers.
JoAn was planting the cukes and yellow cherry tomatoes in the 1x6 bed.

Michelle was helping Paul with the root bed. This was definitely a family project.

Elizabeth worked the umbrella and brought cold drinks out to whoever wanted them.

T-Bob spaded up the center beds.

Thomas ran the manure wagon. 'More poo for you' was the saying as we filled up the beds. Dallas loved the manure, He also liked to watch us work out front.

About the time we finished with all the gardening the sun came out and the rain stopped. Of course it came down again later, but if we had waited a little bit, we could have worked in the sunshine. Oh well. One never knows.

~Mom