Early Mornings

Gardening season is here. We had rain, rain and a bit more rain. Now it is 75 degrees by nine so it appears we are going to skip the mild part of the summer.


here is a full shot of the garden.

The patch in the front is potatoes, the patch to the left of that is the corn/green beans/random floor vines.  Plus the boxes yonder. I tilled three more boxes today to be planted this week. That would leave only one empty box- that box only got one wheelbarrow of dirt so it isn't as healthy. It is currently filled with scrap cardboard, the filled water bottles and the kids chuck the hand tools there as well. I'd like to get it cleaned up but it isnt my immediate goal.

We have compost that needs sifting and can be mixed in with these three boxes. Also, I have made arrangements for me and the two younger kids to go pick horse apples. My life is pretty glamorous.

The time in the pic is 8:30 so you can see how we are treated to shade if I get things done early enough. If we get there around 6, it is mostly shade so the cooler temperature is well worth setting the alarm for. Everyone knows I was born with a sticker on the side of my bottle that says no direct sunlight.


This pic is from last week. We sprayed this morning with fertilizer so we'll see if things perk up. It has been said that the week of constant rain washed a lot of nutrients from the dirt. Sounds legit to me so a little spray wont hurt.

Happy two month birthday to the potatoes. I still have mixed feelings about these. I am about $8 worth of hay into this and the effort of hilling is not super simple. A friend of mine is growing hers in trash cans and I have read about potato towers or even bags. I may try this next year.

The harvest is near! Green beans that I started early are now making their first foods and flowers. The green beans that were sown directly in the ground are about two inches and have their first set of large leaves. The corn is a couple inches high as well. That whole area has been lightly mulched with straw and between rows are a few watermelon, cantaloupe and one lonely winter squash.

Only one of my children agreed to be photographed for this shot. The other two were pretty tired and were quite snippy by this point. We were at the lumber store to pick up some cattle fencing so I could pinterest my way into a trellis idea I read about. They were out of the cattle fence and asked if hog fence was fine. same size, same price range. My daughter SWEARS he told me it didn't come rolled up. I obviously missed that part. So imagine how delighted the kids were to carry the 16 foot panel home?

The one in the middle didn't mind :) The lumber yard isn't far, but there was bickering just the same. Happy memories!