the garden so far

this is picture heavy so beware! it's of the garden so far & some other shots!

this is the front of the garden - the beginning of it when we come out of the house. if you click on the picture it will enlarge it & you can see all the way to the back lot with the other smaller garden plot on it. it's so pretty & green. i'm so proud. it's all growing so well. God is so good to grow it if we are dutiful to plant.

this is the 2 rows of sweet baby & crimson sweet watermelons & a row of pinkeye purple hull field peas (best peas every!!!)

4 rows of tomato plants. 1 row (first row) is all cherry tomatoes & patio tomatoes. the second row is all heirloom Homestead tomatoes & Mariglobe tomatoes. the 3rd row is all heirloom Lemon Boys, Mortgage Lifters, Bonnie Originals, German Johnson & Brandywines. the 4th row is all heirloom Brandywine, Beefsteak, & Rutgers. on Monday (Memorial Day) instead of going to a cook out i spent the day weeding & Clay & i spent the afternoon making about 50 tomato cages out of rebar that goes in cement when they lay it.

this is 2 rows of peppers & 2 rows of cucumbers. the 1st row of peppers is sweet peppers (with 2 rutger tomato plants on it). the peppers are a variety of Yellow, California Wonder, Big Red Early Girl, Purple Beauty (which is black actually), Super Heavy Weight Yellow/Green, Big Bertha Green. the 2nd row of peppers are all hot peppers. their variety consist of Hungarian Wax, Jalapeno, Long Red Cayenne, Pepperoncini, & Anaheim Chili peppers. The 2 rows of cucumbers are mainly Heirloom Sumter pickling cucumbers. Then there are a few Straight Eight cucumber plants, Tendergreen cucumber plants & Marketmore Cucumber plants. We like cucumbers here as well as tomatoes!!

this is 8 rows of vegetables. the first 3 rows are Silver Queen Corn & on the 1st row of corn right beside it is planted a row of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans to climb the stalks of corn. then the 4th row is Kentucky Wonder Bush Green Pole Beans. the 5th row is Silver Queen Corn. the 6th row is Henderson Lima Beans. the 7th row is Silver Queen Corn & the 8th row is Okra from Georgia (Clay didnt know the name for my book - i am keeping a meticulous log). also on monday on rows 2, 3, 5, & 7 i went down right beside the rows & replanted some How Sweet It Is corn as we didnt get a good stand the of the first time i laid out the corn. So this corn will come up behind it & we wont have corn coming out of our ears all at once.

this is a closer picture of the row of Okra again. also there are 3 more pickling cucumber plants in that 2nd row there. 3 Spanish, Sweet White Onions & 2 more Lemon Boy Tomato plants. then there are 2 honeydew melon plants in that bit of pine straw there all by itself.

this is 4 rows of potatoes & onions mainly. the first row is red potatoes from Southern States. those are so pretty when they come up. So lush & waxy looking & they produce like crazy. the 2nd row is a row of Yellow Onions. I bought 1 set from Southern States. It's our first year ever doing onions but i'm way excited. the 3rd row is a row of sweet potatoes. we saved some of our sweet potatoes from last year & just let them grow eyes & planted them. they are coming up like gangbusters! so excited. the last row is a row of Basil & 2 Big Max Pumpkin plants.



this is 2 rows of squash & if you look close i will have a mess of squash to fry up tonight!! also 1 row of zucchini.

this is 5 rows of canteloupe. some Ambrosia, some Burpee Hybrid Muskmelons, some just homegrown from last year seeds & some storebought melon seeds. but we have about 20 plants total. those always do well & the kids love them.

this is just a fun row. we plant a few rows of Indian Corn. it's for decoration & we feed the animals the Indian Corn. We also plant some Mammouth & Double Sun Golden Sunflowers. Those grow wild almost.

then in the 3 tires are some store bought red tomatoes that had started to grow eyes & a lot of them so i cut the eyes off with a bit of the potato left on them & gave them to Clay. he planted them & there you go....more red potatoes. those would be my only raised beds (i am so laughing. Jenny i know JD would be mortified!!).



this is the kids treehouse. Clay has put a lot of time & effort into making them a treehouse & they love it. it is a big hit when we have the youth group over - or any kids for that matter. there are big rope swings that swing out over a huge ditch. Also if you look hard above the ladder is a hanging hand rail that you hold onto when you do the zipline that goes out about 100ft from the tree house. the kids LOVE that. Clay is trying to figure out how to attach that big slide to the treehouse - but he hasnt had the energy to put his engineering hat on lately to figure it out.

this is our big patch of blackberry bushes. this started out about 5 years ago as 5 little plants...that were basically sticks. i had no hope of them ever producing, but produce they do. they grow wilder & wilder every year. we have been able to give them away as well. they grow the best blackberries - the only drawback is the thorns...but its still worth the picking.

these are our grapes. there are a few shots. it's three grape plants on a small grape arbor. Clay needs to put the other side of it up but for now this is working. we are just tickled that grapes are growing. Asher is beside himself with delight. they are "his" grapes & he always says "God knows i love grapes so he is letting them grow." We will have grapes by the end of the month.



when i went out to take pictures i had a few companions with me. readen is turning out to be a really good dog. she stays right with us & is fun & affectionate. we all love her to pieces.

here is a shot of my chickens. i have 3 teenager chickens in a cage back there so the big chickens will get use to them. if we didnt give them time to get use to the juveniles they would peck them to death. it's pretty gruesome actually. the "teenagers" are my White Leghorns....i cant wait to see them full grown!

this is our little Houdan/Ameracauna mix rooster. He is the King of the Coop! He is sweet & little. He's a keeper. & so far he is the only rooster we have & i would like to keep it that way.

these are Lily's flowers coming up. we buried her out near the chicken coop because she chased them mercilessly & planted lilies on her grave. they have come back & multiplied. it's bittersweet.

this is Ferb. he has 1 green eye & 1 blue eye. he is the nicest cat. i love him immensely. i think i'm the only one though. the kids still say he is "freaky". 

and this is my other companions as i was taking pictures - Esther & Flash. couldnt ask for 2 cuter companions. As you can see from Esther's face it  was quite warm & only 10:30 today. It's already 92 degrees.