Saturday, July 12, 2008

The Garden

The garden is finally looking like a productive garden. We had such an amazingly cold spring and then wetter than wet, that I didn't get most things in before June. I'm still praying that I'll have enough to put up for winter.

Here you can see the apple tree is doing well. I have 3 apple trees and all three of them are full of tiny little fruit. Last year we had one that didn't do a thing but this year it is full.

In this bed you see beans, potatoes and corn in the background. Along the fence we have pole beans. The corn is not knee high yet. In the midwest farmers would say you will have a good crop if it's "knee high by the fourth of July". But I don't live in the midwest where the average first frost is usually in September sometime. So I'm hoping we'll get a little corn.



Here you can see the beans that will eventually grow up the fence. I planted late AND little miss "jump-over-the-fence" ate a whole bunch of the beans so I had to start over. But all in all they look good.

Here is the first of my tomatoes. I grew tomatoes from seed for the first time this year and it was definitely a learning experience for me. I think I have a total of 17 plants, but many of them don't look all that well even though they have blooms. So we'll see.

The raspberries are delicious!! I hope to get enough to at least make a few jars of jam and maybe a dessert or 2.


I have so much to learn in terms of gardening AND making it all work together during the kidding season. This spring was amazingly overwhelming with our first time in goat kidding and trying to expand the garden. I hope next year will be a little easier. I have such big dreams of growing the vast majority of our vegetables and I'm going to run a bit short this winter I am sure.
My next big garden project is to turn 2 of my raised beds into cold frames for a winter salad garden. In this neck of the woods I'm told I can grow salad fixings year round.

Off to water the garden!!

2 comments:

Monica said...

Makes me think of Farmer Boy by Laura Ingills Wilder, which my LittleBuilder and I read every night. They put up SO MUCH! Most of it downstairs in the "cellar".

We're enjoying the meager but at least growing products of our 4x8 veggie patch.

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Sophia,

What you are doing inspires me so much. This is my dream as well. Would you mind e-mailing me privately so I can know how to contact you directly? I have some questions for you about getting started.

Do you have any posts about "your family's journey" to decide to do this? It's so incredible what you're doing. Did you grow up on a farm?

Thanks, I've got so many questions!

Carrie
http://oreganicthrifty.blogspot.com