A View of the Garden Plots. (So I Don't Forget Where I Planted Stuff.)

Dan is setting us up beautifully for a spectacular season of homegrown fruits and vegetables. Today marked the completion of plowing and disking.

This was the pig pen. Now it will be the home of potatoes, sweet potatoes, perhaps corn ( an open pollinated red flint, or "dent" corn) and/or squash and pumpkin.

And a closer view of the fertile Virgina red clay.

On the west side of the house I have a lovely little garden spot just waiting to tell me which delicacies want to be planted in its sandier brown dirt.
Just plowed.

The same plot after Laura and I rode on the disc to give a deeper till this morning.

And in the corner of the long established garden is my new rustic asparagus bed that Big Dan made yesterday. He's filling it with dirt on top of the compost right now.
Mama Cow has every right to gloat over that glorious compost pile. She's a large producer of "black gold."

Big Dan's Strawberry Patch

We've had trouble in the past with our animals destroying our strawberries.
*Trouble* meaning they've killed every strawberry plant we had ever planted. Ever.
So my genius husband did this.
Also, they're yummy!

Plantation Fail

I planted 18 cotton seeds. Everyone (three of you) wanted to know what I would do with my abundant cotton harvest.

Never fear; there will be no excess cotton to brush and spin.

Here's the 1 out of 18 cotton plants to sprout, circled in yellow. The rest molded.

On the bright side, surrounding the lone cotton seedling are a bunch of happy little "Virginia Select" Amish Paste tomato seedlings that will grow up to make a year's supply of ketchup and tomato sauce for us.

Seeds of Hope

18 cotton plants are about to be born on Providence Farm!

Due to a vacation at the Grand Canyon I got a late start on gardening, but I'm happy to see that Southern Exposure Seed Exchange recommends direct sowing everything.

I did plant the cotton and some Virginia Select paste tomatoes. I'll probably start the peppers and other tomatoes when they come in the mail this week.

Hope Springs Eternal

Here are illustrations of things that will never get done at my farm.
In the bleak darkness that is January, I always imagine grand schemes for a garden that will actually produce food that I, in turn, will actually harvest and "put up."
I'm a terrible gardener. This year I ordered a book which will make a good gardener out of me.
When, and only when, I master the contents of this book, I will allow myself to order the seed catalog!

We're Expecting!

A little seven pound bundle of joy will be making an appearance around July!

On our table.

Sliced.

It's Katie's baby watermelon.
She's gardening in the big garden and also in containers and she's making a splash in the agricultural arts her first time around.

Et Tu Brute?

The girls harvested the last of the Romaine lettuce from the garden today.

Looks like Caesar salad's on the menu!

Sweet Potato Kate

I was at the Red Mule hardware store with Katie when she spied the sweet potato slips for sale.
She wanted to give them a whirl, so we brought them home, and the sisters planted about half so far.
I will post pictures in the fall when the full grown sweet potatoes are ready for eating.

CSA Basket

Here is a small portion of the basket I bought today from the lady who sold Penny to me.
The apples are Jonagolds. I'm going to plant that variety this fall.
I'm not good at gardening, so receiving this plus a watermelon, plus sweet potatoes that were to die for, makes me consider hiring my gardening done!

Flowers!

There was a sale at the local nursery so Gretchen and I bought loads of hanging baskets. Here's how mine look. It will be good to have Dan home this weekend and share coffee in the shade of the petunias.

@#%&#!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Camouflage Ducks

Here's a view of the garden after Dan plowed and disked it and before I started amending the soil and planting.
Can you spot the two lady ducks in the bottom photo?

Science! Who Knew?

Every year I plant innocent little blueberry twigs from Wal Mart or Lowe's, and every year they die.
This year, Becky the science whiz suggested I test the soil to find out if there may be some underlying reason, besides bad blueberry luck, that they weren't able to survive.
She ran the PH test and now I see her point.
So she and I are off to get acidifying fertilizer for the latest attempt at a blueberry patch.

Katie's Garden Haul

Today's produce...

Gardening

Here is a pictorial journal of the day the garden was prepared by Danny and the tractor.
The plow.
The disc.
The disc with three girls on top.
The disc with two girls on top.
The finished product.
My favorite part of the day was me doing no hard work.

Tractor Ride

Here's for you city folk, so you can enjoy a simulated farm experience.

Becky, Laura, and Katie are riding on top of the disc to give it more weight.

Please Hurry, Spring!

Today started out bright and sunny. But as I was cheerfully folding laundry, thinking of my gentle cousins' encouragement in my vocation, a big cloud obscured the light and I could hardly see.
Now it's mildly overcast, so hanging out this load of towels isn't going to be quite the thrilling endeavor I had been anticipating.
I'm taking Becky's batch of started broccoli seeds as my paradigm of hope.
Becky took their photo for the blog.

Planting Out Young Cabbages

Inspired by Mr. McGregor of Peter Rabbit fame, Katie helped me by planting out young cabbages today.
She declared that if a bunny came through our garden she wouldn't put it in a pie, she would snuggle it.
We also planted broccoli, onions, and six more raspberry plants. I've got more peas to plant and four blueberry bushes, since I (once again) killed the blueberries last year.

Laura was sick all last week with a raging fever and terrible cough. Becky's been sick since Friday. Now Katie, just since this photo, is up to a 102 fever.
I'm very thankful that by now I know what to expect, and I don't have to go through the panic I experienced with Laura's illness.
The doctor thought it might be bacterial, but it's definitely a virus. I suspect swine flu, but I'm not taking anyone back in to confirm my suspicion.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

This summer, Becky strung the ripe hot peppers and hung them in the attic. She learned this from reading Little House books.
Now that they're dry, she used the Vitamix to powder them.
The powder's really hot!

Big Dan's Sunflowers