Garden Update

I haven't posted on the garden's progress since July, as, after that, I had a lot of produce from the garden to preserve. Just to give you an idea, I froze 4 cups of peas, 2 cups of raspberries, 6 cups of rhubarb, 4 cups of zucchini,  20 cups of green beans, 7 cups of pureed pumpkin, 10 cups of tomatoes, 12 cups of broccoli, and 16 cups of carrots.  I canned 2 pints of peas, 24 pints of green beans, 10 quarts of pumpkin, 7 pints of salsa, 16 half-pints of pizza sauce, 3 pints of pasta sauce, 8 half-pints of pumpkin butter, 5 half-pints of grape jelly, and 37 quarts of grape juice.  This was all from my yard.  As you'll recall, I live on less than a tenth of an acre.  I have a tiny, tiny yard.  And this list doesn't even get into all the drying I did.  I dried mostly herbs, and onions, rhubarb, sunflower seeds, and dandelion root.

A lot of the stuff I put up is gone.  We're down to the last bag of carrots and our beans are nearly half-gone, as is our broccoli.  Going to have to start shopping for produce in the grocery store pretty soon.

The garden plans for next year are coming along very well.  I have nearly all the seeds I'll need in May.  I have more specific plans drawn up to best utilize the space in the garden.  My patches of grass are going to be a bit smaller this year than they were last year.

My blueberry bushes should be bearing some fruit, and we've made big improvements in the strawberry patch, so hopefully we'll have a lot of fruit this year.  I'm hoping for a modest five pounds from the blueberry bushes, but we shall see.  I'm hoping the strawberries will hit their stride this year.  I'm considering using some of the grapes to make wine.  I'm also hoping to barter the chestnuts, as we don't much care for them.

I'll be making a list of the annual plants I plan to grow in a later post.

Garden Update

Well, it's been a while. Must mean I've been busy outside again...let's see. I've got my 9 tomato plants in, my 9 pepper plants in, 6 kohlrabi, 3 eggplant, and 3 broccoli, all my pea vines are growing nicely. I've planted all my seeds for sunflowers, pumpkins, watermelon, carrots, and beans. I actually am hoping to plant a few more carrot and bean seeds this week some time if I get a chance. I also want to plant some melon seeds, and maybe some cucumbers. And definitely some zucchini plants as well.

I finally got to plant my blueberry bushes. They look fabulous. Well, they look like somebody poked some sticks in the ground, but I love them already. The blueberry bushes are in the front yard, along with all the tomatoes, peas, sunflowers, pumpkins, and, of coarse, a few herbs and flowers for my soaps. I also have some carrots and beans planted out front, too. And maybe 6 square feet of grass...

My strawberries are starting to set fruit. I've been trying to help them along, due to lack of bees. I've been considering getting my own hive, truthfully, to help with pollination, and also of coarse for the honey. My girls and I have seasonal allergies, and honey helps little people to develop a resistance to the things they are allergic to.

I harvested some rhubarb for the first time yesterday! It was quite exciting. I had been letting this plant reach its full maturity before harvesting anything from it, and finally, yesterday, it was ready! One of my husband's favorite foods is rhubarb torte, so I made one for him. It was quite exciting.

I can see in a few weeks we'll have raspberries, which I'm quite excited about. The raspberry canes had been neglected for at least a year before we moved in, but I was able to revive them. I'm hoping for a big harvest this year. We have June-bearing raspberries, so I'm hoping for more than just a few handfuls this year.

Busy Weekend

My husband and I re-did our front yard this weekend. The front yard was unevenly graded and full of grass...we dug up about half of the yard, as the other half was already dug up. We dug it up not only to grade it, but also to expose the weed seeds for the birds to eat and to amend and aerate the soil. We dumped some compost and peat moss over the area where the blueberry bushes are going to go. We put the sod we dug up back in two areas after aerating the soil. I got 2 of my 3 raised beds ready for planting. I planted about half of my peas because I ran out of seeds. I also got my cement blocks set up behind my raised beds. I'll be putting herbs in the cement blocks. My father-in-law should be coming this week to give us a bunch of manure. After that's incorporated in, I'm going to be able to plant my onions and create a path in the front yard.

Now all that's left for the front yard, for now, are about 4 trellises, and, of coarse, planting the rest of my seeds.

A List of Plans

Well, everyone, you asked for it, you got it! The following is a list of plants I grow/am planning to grow this season. I am not completely set on my herbs yet, so I will not be listing those right now. I don't grow too many ornamental flower-type plants, except if they will be beneficial to my soap-making. In that case, I consider them herbs, even if they are not technically in that category. This list will comprise of fruit and vegetable plants I am planning on growing this season. Keep in mind, when you read the list, I am growing all this in a space of less than a quarter acre, and that I am, in most cases, not growing one or two plants of a particular kind.

Plants to Grow (fruit and veg)
Peas, sweet-36
Peas, shelled-36
Beans, Bush~40
Beans, Pole~40
Carrots-80+
Broccoli-2-4
Tomatoes-9
Potatoes-10
Sunflowers-12-16
Pumpkins-4
Lettuce
Spinach
Peppers, green-2+
Peppers, Cayenne-2+
Peppers, chili-2+
Blueberries-2 (one high, one half-high)
Onions~20
Asparagus-20
Garlic~15
Rhubarb-1
Grapes-15+
Raspberries-12
Strawberries
Zucchini-2

I will explain my choices of edibles in an upcoming post.

On Growing Vegetables

Growing vegetables is easier than one may think. I plan to expand my garden this year to grow more vegetables than I did last year. In a few months, my entire front yard will be green with vegetables and flowers and herbs- no grass!

Most vegetables are annuals, meaning they die after one season.

Some are biennials, meaning they can live for two seasons. Usually we grow biennials as annuals and pull them out after one season. Biennials spend their first season making what we can eat, and their second season making seeds, which we don't eat. Carrots, for example, lay down their roots (the orange part we eat) their first season, and make a flower stalk, then seeds, the second season. During the second season the root part becomes woody and not so tasty. It's still edible, just not as delicious as if you had picked it the first season.

Then there are the vegetables which are perennials. Rhubarb is a vegetable that comes back every year. We eat the stalks, not the leaves. Same with asparagus. I'm growing both this year.

Later in the week I'll be back with a list of the vegetables I'll be growing this season.