Saturday, August 18, 2007

Garden Snapshots


We love to garden around here and everyone enjoys picking our fresh fruits and vegetables when they are ready. We decided to start out small this year since we weren't sure how things would do. Well, my husband wisely said we should start out small. If it had been up to me it would have been twice as large!

This year we decided to put mulch down and it has really helped with the weeds. We're lucky because there is a place here in town that everyone takes their tree clippings to and the city grinds them up. All you have to do is go out there and load up as much mulch as you would like for FREE! We haven't had any problems with this mulch and as we've been trying to do some landscaping around here it sure has been nice not to spend money on mulch.

In the spirit of our naming rituals our garden has been dubbed Mr. McGregors Garden and our pumpkin patch is Charlie Brown's Pumpkin Patch. We're going with a literary theme of sorts. Anyway, we grew a variety of red/yellow corn. Our crop is already in and boy was that corn sweet and yummy. In fact we've been know to eat it fresh off the stalks without cooking. Our Roma tomatoes are doing well. Lots and Lots of tomatoes. I usually grow cherry tomatoes, but they didn't have any plants the day I was shopping. The Roma's tend to get these black spots on the bottom. Anyone know how to keep this from happening? Hubby planted some red chili peppers and cantaloupe. Down the hill is our pumpkin patch that already has one pumpkin that is about ready and lots of blooms and babies coming around. We plan on having a fall hayride and pumpkin picking party with the kids.


I love fresh herbs, especially basil. My two basil plants are doing great. I also have some mint my Mom brought up earlier this summer from her garden. The Greek oregano didn't make it, but my thyme, lemon balm, and dill are holding their own. When the wind blows I can catch a whiff of my basil and it makes me soooo hungry:) Next year I plan on having a butterfly garden with lots of dill, parsley and milkweed for the caterpillars. Did you know Monarchs will only eat milkweed and the Painted Swallowtails like the dill and parsley? Interesting...


Hubby would also like a rose garden next year...I think we'll be keeping ourselves pretty busy:)










2 comments:

kpottlitzer said...

i love your gardens! i had no idea ya'll had so much stuff growing. fall is my favorite season, so i especially love the idea of the hayride and pumpkin picking.

Kara said...

Hey Sis! Fall is my favorite time too...maybe if you get a break you can come up and experience some of our fall weather:)