Gardening!

Is it Spring yet?

Tim, the girls and I have been so busy planning our garden.
We not only plan on what we are growing and canning. But we need to figure out weed control. Last year was successful but the weeds were a little much for me. Life gets busy in the summer and the garden can consume the majority of it. Last year I would spend 3-4 full days a week just working on the garden. 
We got the seeds ordered and they are in. We also have another company that we ordered from. We haven't got that stuff in yet. We won't talk about that. 
Lets talk garden! We need mulch and lots of it. We like the no tilling method in our garden. This method has worked for us in the past and still is working. We just need more mulch.
So come along over the next several days and look what's been happening in the garden.

DAY 1

The end of last year Tim brought home a trailer full of old straw bales. Winter came early with snow. So we weren't able to get this stuff spread out like we wanted too. The straw bales finally thawed out. They were so frozen to the ground. Well, some of them still are. The insides are still mostly frozen. But we need to get this garden ready for planting. We got seeds that are ready to get in the ground.


The plan today is to move the straw bales and start making our rows.

Skylar is laying cardboard down before we put mulch down.

Kaitlin is loading up the wheel barrow with mulch.

It is such a beautiful day to be out working in the garden.

Spring fever for sure.

Mr. T and the chickens were enjoying the weather too.

Aren't they cute!

The chicken will lay her egg with Squirt laying with her.

DAY 2

We are still working on our rows and laying down mulch and straw.

Kaitlin laying down card board in the walkways.

We do have the rows all staked out.

Tim loading up on compost for the potato beds.

Kaitlin helping her dad spread compost.

I'm exhausted just watching.

One of our three sections for potatoes are done.

We are growing them like we did last year. We lay the potato down and layer with compost and mulch. It sure made harvesting them easier. No digging required.

Three rows almost ready to plant in.
We are putting mulch in the walkways and laying compost and straw in the growing area.

Look who came to visit us.

This is RooRoo our new rooster.

He doesn't much like the other hens and roosters.

Mostly he is by himself.

Potato bed 2 of 3 is done.

Picking up for the night.

DAY 3

Tim, the girls and I are working on our 3rd potato bed.

We want to get it in before dark.

3rd potato bed is planted.

We aren't sure how many is planted but something like 75-100.

I know it sounds like a lot but just remember this is for the year.

Night is coming so we are cleaning up and going over a few things before we call it quits for the night.

DAY 4

Tim and I are working on getting more garlic planted. We weren't able to get the rest of them in the ground last fall. Like I keep saying winter and snow came fast and long. There was not break in between. 

So fall garlic it will have to be.

We did get about 50-60 cloves in last fall. They already have little sprouts coming up.We planted all we had. We did get more to plant as we knew this wasn't enough for the year.

We planted another 50 or so garlic cloves.

Garlic is in for fall harvest.

Kaitlin has been keeping everything written down of what is planted and where.

Skylar is planting the carrots.

I got some more seeds planted (Tomato and peppers).

Several varieties of peppers too.

DAY 5

It is supposed to rain and I want to get a few things in the garden.

Can I do it?

Skylar and I got the cabbage in.

It's hard to take pictures when you hands are covered in dirt.

I made it and no rain yet.

1 1/2 rows of cabbage is in. 

Somewhere in those days we managed to plant:

Beets, Turnips, Spinach, Snap Peas, Radishes.

I got the signs out too.

Over in the Vineyard Garden, we planted peas and snap peas.

We still need to work on this side of the garden.

This will have to wait for a another day.

DAY 6

Kaitlin and I got the cauliflower planted.

Kaitlin pointing out where we planted them.

It's supposed to rain but we got nothing yet.

I worked on the putting the broccoli in a different container. What I had them in, they would flood out when it rains. So I planted them in the 4 pack containers. I put them on a draining tray and buried them in the garden and put tons of straw around them. I pray they make it. I will have to wait for another day to actually plant them in the ground. As Kaitlin and I worked on this it was already sprinkling on us. I heard that we have snow coming this weekend.