~The Garden~
In late winter we start tomatoes, peppers, asparagus, and later on we start broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and usually a few bedding plants to fill our flowerbeds and garden rows with a little color. We set the seedling flats on our large chest freezer in front of a South-facing window and add supplemental light and heat mats as needed for a strong start.
They start as such whispy little things, but we transplant them several times and they gain that stockiness and vigor we are looking for soon enough.
We do a little dance with dozens of seedlings each morning and evening. We set them out each morning if the weather is nice enough, and we take them all back in each evening....every single day! It is quite tiring but the plants really grow best with that wonderful sunshine, breezes to strengthen their stems, and fresh air so it is always worth it!
Peppers and tomatoes, at the lanky teenage stage. haha
Bell pepper seedlings.
After several weeks they are almost ready to go outside for good!
Ready to go into the garden or get sold if we have extras!
Pepper plant, I am learning about pruning for higher yields and stockier plants. So hopefully this year they won't be so lanky.:)
A flat of marigolds for the flowerbed and tomato bed for companion planting.
Broccoli and Cauliflower starts.
Cauliflower plant in the garden with straw mulch.
Our garden is a large L shape and takes up roughly 10,000 square foot. We try to heavily mulch with straw to keep the weeds down, use water more efficiently, and make for a nice look to the garden.
When the weeds get too out of control and I just can't stand it any longer, we bring in the heavy equipment. Did you buy that? I didn't think so. What is really happening in this picture is a waterline repair, I had to give up some garden last summer to get it repaired. I had you going for a second though didn't I?
Corn ready to harvest!
Tomatoes growing up the hog panel supports.
Green bean plot we grow Jade II bush beans, and Fortex pole beans.
Watermelon plans, we grew them on black plastic for the first time and they did amazing! This is our very favorite variety called Sweet Favorite.
Garden helpers are wonderful!
Broccoli for the freezer. This is the Imperial variety from Johnny's Seed and we love it!
Cherry tomatoes!
Picking cucumbers, some got a little large in this picking.
Corn on the cob, yum! This variety is called Delectable from Johnny's seed and we really like it's growth habits and yield along with flavor!
Jade II bush beans.
Summer squash assortment.
Fresh lettuce greens.
Tomatoes fresh from the vines, our favorite variety that cracked the least (we are notoriously inconsistent watering people evidently), is Big Beef variety. They were excellent producers, had smooth round good sized fruits!
Jalapeno peppers! Poppers anyone?
This area has peppers, and cucumbers mainly.
An onion row, in spring.
We also have a selection of berries getting established on the place, which we are pretty excited about!
Raspberry bushes.
Several varieties, some are thornless and some are Caroline variety.
Seascape strawberries (a day-neutral variety)
Honeoye Variety (June Bearer variety)
Bright, cheerful sunflower varieties! (We sometimes sell summer bouquets too!)
~Fall Decor~
Our daughter has started up a fall decor project from our garden. It has been a huge hit for local fall decor sales. She works hard all spring, summer and early fall tending the plants and harvesting, cleaning, packaging, and delivering these products to local customers.
Assorted gourds, adding more unique varieties this year too!
Colorful Indian Corn.
The kids working to harvest, sort, and package bundles of 20 gourds for customers.
Another gourd assortment.
That is an overview of our garden. Hope you enjoyed seeing some produce and our garden area.
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