Tag Archives: raised garden beds

Playing in the Dirt!

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It is that time again, where I get out there and summer-ize the raised garden beds. They have been sitting dormant all winter and they were filled with weeds, pine needles and leaves.

I rack out all the debris on the top and then I start pulling the weeds. After that I hoe and break up the top layer of the dirt.

Then, I add new dirt.

Youngest grand girl was helping too.

We got a few things planted.

They don’t look like much now, but we got some sweet onion sets planted. Don’t tell Company though….he hates onions!

We got all the pots from last summer dumped out and we rinsed them out with the hose so they are ready to fill with dirt.

Oldest grand girl even made some DIY garden labels.

here is another one.

They are so cute they made me laugh!

I planted cherry tomatoes in my upside down planter.

Here is a bottom view.

Gee…I made a bunch of progress, but I still have a couple of more weekends of working on it to get everything planted and get them to look how I want them to look.

This picture is from last year.

I just need it to not rain long enough for me to finish. Then it can rain all it wants ; )

So ready to pick fresh veggies from the garden.

All in all we planted, spinach, lettuce, kale, chard, tomatoes (still have more to plant) sugar snap peas, onions, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts and we are not quite done yet. Some of the things are just for a spring garden and then when they are done, I will replant with something else.

We shall see, I did not do a spring garden last year.

But, I wanted to extend my growing and harvesting time from the raised garden beds.

I still am not sure what I am doing!

But….we do love to play in the dirt!

Happy Planting,

Becky

Here is just some random flower goodness!

                   

My Little Garden Update

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Here is a picture of My Little Backyard Garden.

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. Now, imagine it with 8 inches of snow over it with another 1/4 in of ice underneath.

The raised garden beds are littered with pine needles that I will need to remove. The orange pots are full of those artichoke plants I had such high hopes for. The artichokes were suppose to be ones that you could harvest artichokes in one season. I think they sent me the wrong seeds.  Boo…hoo….I babied those artichokes for 10 months.

Here are a few of the planters I used on the patio. I planted egg plant and  sweet peppers on the patio. The good news is that they did great!

The Little Garden is just waiting for warmer weather.

You are probably wondering why I am showing you pictures of a dormant garden.

Well, it is just a reminder that is just about time to start planting your seedlings indoors.

I will be starting my onions, peas and a few other seeds in the next few weeks.

I plan on having a early spring garden and install a floating row covers over the raised garden beds to protect the new plants from the potential cold weather.

Company and I are planning on having a large garden at his country home. We planted several fruit trees to add on to what he already had, back in the fall.

With the help of the grand girls, we planted 2 more apple trees, a peach tree and four cherry trees.

Company had this great hole digger on his tractor. It makes planting trees pretty easy.

We planted another peach tree next to the one he had, to see if it would help produce bigger peaches.

We also planted 2 different varieties of apple trees and planted those near the 4 he already has.

Lastly, we planted 4 cherry trees in his front yard. We thought they would be pretty there next to the old civil war cemetery.

Did I ever mention he has a civil war cemetery on the edge of his front yard?

How fun (creepy) is that? : )

Hope they like cherry trees.

Just wanted to give you an update on my latest garden report.

What  are you planning on planting this spring/summer/fall?

Becky

Other post  you might enjoy.

                    

My First Harvest                                   The Seed Fairy                 Grand girl picking veggies with Mickey

 

Caught the Varmint “Green” Handed!

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I use the word “caught” very loosely here….I caught him, green handed, on camera!

I came home from work a few days ago and just happened to look out my dining room window and this is what I saw! A big ole ground hog, munching happily away on one of green tomatoes!

Yikes!

After I took the culprit’s picture, I banged on the window pane (like that was going to do any good). I guess I was loud enough to wake up the Super Hero (in bed asleep with horrible cold). Super Hero ran out of his room ready to find out what all the noise was about. Embarrassedly, I told him about the ground hog “porking out” on my tomatoes and I thought banging on the window as hard as I could would really scare the fat varmint.

Ok, Ok……I am a blonde dork sometimes….I said, I thought it was a good idea….

The Super Hero went back to bed, scheming of ways to get me back from waking him up from a good nap.

I thought about my next plan of action and decided I would pull up all my tomato plants except the cherry ones. I rationalized that if the ground hogs were going to eat my big green tomatoes, there was no use in keeping the plants around when I could grow something else.

I spent the next hour or so picking the rest of the tomatoes off the plants and pulling out the tomatoes. This is a before picture.

This is an, after shot, of one of the garden beds after I pulled out the tomato plants.

Underneath some of the tomato plants were some bean plants, the varmints did not see, that actually had real green beans on them! I was so excited!

I have planted beans twice this summer. Each time my little plants gets some blooms on them, some furry creature gobbles down all my blooms and half the plant!

I also found a pine cone from my big ever green tree in the back yard. There is no way this pine cone “found” it’s way into the raised garden. You don’t think the varmints wanted to do a little, “bartering” with me do you? In like, I will trade you one crunchy pine cone for all your green tomatoes……varmints aren’t that smart are they???

I think this one might be!!!   “I will get you my pretty and all your furry tomato eating friends too…..”

Anyone want a furry well feed ground hog as a pet???

I don’t either!

Hope your garden is still going great!!

Becky

 

 

 

 

Urban Community Garden

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Everyone loves a field trip! Including me. Yesterday, I just had the urge to explore something new.

I had read a little story in our local paper about a community urban garden. It is a garden that provides education and resources for families to create a edible garden in thier backyard. As a teacher, this really interested me.

 A couple of days later, I just happen to accidentally drive by it. Whoohoo, what is the chances of that. I knew, when I had more time I had to go back and explore.

Sunday afternoon was a perfect afternoon for my field trip. My granddaughters are my little explorers……my car is the Santa Maria.  I was able to take one of my granddaughters. I picked her up, she got buckled up and we sailed away to find this garden of urban.

I was very interested in seeing the chickens. Don’t know why. I am just a little “cuckoo” sometimes.

The first thing we found was land. Ok…we parked next to the curb. But, we were delighted to find the fence surrounding the garden decorated with the cutest, cleverest, and adorable string art.

    

We were greeted by Mr. BeeBumble and Mrs. C. Carrot and of course Mr. Heirloom Tomato.

         

We can’t forget to mention, Ms. Lettuce B. Friends and Sister Pie Pumpkin.

What we were really looking for was the chickens.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

I don’t know either.

         

There were two large coops on the urban (farm) garden. One housed white chickens and the other coop housed different colored ones. The different colored ones, followed us up and down the side of the coop.  They wanted to be friends. We were making a connection….wait…I think they wanted to be fed.

The white chickens just kind of sat around, ignoring us.

We really liked the different colored ones.

Next, we visited the home of Bee Bumble.

Bees sting.

We did not stay long.

Next, we took a walk through the garden. The rows are so nice and straight. My granddaughter looks down for a closer view.

         

We found these little guys hiding.

What are these little guys? or girls? Are they beets?

We were able to talk to one of the workers. He was so gracious and answered so many of my questions.

I need to go back and ask some more.

Next time, I need to take all my granddaughters on an expedition for further exploration of the urban garden.

Or maybe a closer look at Bee Bumbles house with out fear of being greeted at the door by a angry door (bee) man.

We may not know a lot nowabout the urban garden . We may not know how it all works. But, we do know one thing.

All gardens and chicken need a little water!

I will share more information about this urban garden as our exploration continues.

It was time to go home. We climbed back on board the santa maria to sail for home via a pit stop at McDonalds.

Happy Gardening!

Becky

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