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First Vegetable Garden 3-(1-3)-08

Category: My First Vegetable (2008) | Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:26 am

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My grandfather always told me "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans." Boy did I have a good one for him this weekend.

Saturday after I filled in the progress and updated the blog (with my plans to sow more seeds and finish the rows, mowing, etc.) I was feeding Emily when my husband came in and started packing bags and loading them into the truck, apparently his mother wanted him to come in and Bar-B-Q Saturday instead of Sunday. She had called and told him to head in. Knowing that one day Emily will move away and I'll be calling and begging for a visit, I only sighed and packed up the diaper bag for a weekend trip.

It was disappointing to leave knowing that I had so much work planned for that day and knowing that Monday was quite a ways off but we went in anyways. I did get to get my hands dirty on Saturday, pulling weeds and planting calla lilies at my mother-in-law's house while my husband cooked. It was a shame it wasn't my garden I was working in on Saturday, I accomplished everything I had planned to with minimal disruption, and still got to enjoy dinner with the family, that hasn't happened in a while.

I suppose it was for the best, if I had been working here I would have planted the cukes and carrots and maybe even a few of the herbs. They would have had to sit through tonight (Monday) and the freeze is here, it's dropped at least 15 degrees in a couple hours and I have a laundry room full of transplants, herbs, and fruit trees that are glad that they didn't get planted this weekend.
Pictures:
These are the collards and the jalepeneo, banana, chile/cayenne, bell and habenero peppers


These are the strawberries, and peppermint, lemon balm, cilantro, oregano, and parsley transplants.

And one of all of it.

On the bright side the herbs I planted in the mini greenhouse have begun to sprout.



I was very surprised since I left them (the herbs) on top of the rabbit's cage and they were blown off, and all the way to the ground from the porch. All the little pots were flopped out of their holes and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with parsley in the basil, and oregano as that pot was spilt all over the rest.
I have a few transplant of parsley, greek oregano, peppermint, and lemon balm that will be going into the herb garden with the mini-greenhouse plants so it's shaping up to be a nice little herb patch.

This weekend I spoke to my MIL and aunt who gave me a different idea for the actual arrangement of the garden. I had planned to do rows in a large rectangle and box it in with landscape timbers or tree trunks from the trees James is clearing out of the back. Mom said that a four or 5 small boxes would make it much easier when I went to tending and harvesting and I really hadn't put too much thought into it. Now I am thinking maybe put the herbs in a bed all to themselves with the garlic, the watermelon, cantalope and strawberries can go all togeather in a small bed as well, then do three or four beds with different veggies but give them alot of space to grow and alot of space for me to get around in there tending them.

Does anyone on here plant their vegetables in multiple beds or is it best to put them all in one area? I thought this was something that might also help with my pepper problem, I have 5 different kinds of transplants and I still haven't bought any of the seeds that I want to get so that will probably up the number as well and I have to at least separate the sweet peppers from the hot ones. If anyone's done this could you let me in on the problems I might have to worry about? If it's a bad idea is there any reason I can't leave a large space in between rows for me to work in?

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My First Vegetable Garden Day One

Category: My First Vegetable (2008) | Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:16 pm

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My First Vegetable Garden Day One: 2-29-08

What a day! I could sleep for a week! This morning started slow with the baby up all night and into the wee hours I didn't start bright and early like I had planned, It seems with the little one plans change like the weather.

I was finally out on the 4-wheeler to finish disking at 10am, Emily supervised, as usual. I ended up with a smaller plot than planned after I relised how far over my head I was, it's probably about 15X20 instead of 15X30.
Today was the last day of James's deer season at his lease and he missed an early morning doe so he was in about noon and helped after checking in on the food plot in the back and clearing some more of the woods out. Thankfully he's all done with the season so I can look foprward to alot more help with the garden for a few weeks. We fought roots from the oak trees for most of the day after I finished disking up the plot, and that was quite a fight! There is one at each of three corners and they are very large and old so the roots were huge and ran almost all the way through the garden. I had soaked seeds for the green beans over night and so when the sun began to set I decided we'd go ahead and make two rows for them, no fertilizer other than the burnings we had from cleaning out the garden and some rotted oak leaves but maybe they'll be okay anyways. Fingers crossed.

We had some mower trouble, a broken belt, but managed to get it fixed just in time for cleaning up. He plans on mowing tommorow while I dig more rows, should we put the clippings over the beans to give them a little more warmth or would they grow grass?

Oh, and I found out this evening there may be another freeze (low of 32F) Monday, so I am still trying to decide whether to plant the pepper transplants before then or not, that's also going to be the first really good rain we've had in a week or so and the highs are still in the upper 70s with only mid-40s for lows except that one day. What do yall think? I suppose I could keep them up on the porch under cover til the freeze either comes or doesn't, but would it make a difference?
I really want to get them in as soon as possible since the beans are in now and the tomatoes will be here Sunday evening (Easter presents from my mother-in-law, hooray!) and I have the herbs and a few other veggie seeds just begging me to plant them.




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Pictures of me and my family.

Category: Wife and Mommy | Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:27 am

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First of all a group photo, taken the first day home with Emily, 12-31-07, we were kinda scruffy after the hospital stay.

Then some of just me, this is last week at the deer lease (we were actually stuck in the mud when I took these HA HA!



A few of James...



And Emily






And last but not least the animals...
Lucky

Lucy

Blue Bell in my inbox, he's a workin bunny!


And our newest edition, Grace!

That's the family!


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Lily's First Blog - Just another day in paradise....

Category: Wife and Mommy | Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:53 am

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My first blog, I figure it oughta be about me and what's important to me.
I'm 21 years old and I live in the Piney Woods of East Texas on 10 beautiful acres with my husband James, my new daughter (12-29-08) Emily, and my animals, Lucky (German Shepard Mix), Lucy (Black Lab), and Blue Bell (Silly Rabbit who thinks he's a Dog). We moved from Houston last winter where we had what the new builders there call a yard that wouldn't even support grass most of the time.
We hunt October-February for deer and year round for hogs, predetors, rabbit and squirrels. I didn't start hunting til I met James and I still haven't decided weather I can kill a deer yet but the rest are already under the belt. We also enjoy fishing in the warm monthes and though we moved near Lake Livingston we go over 100 miles to Madagorda Bay to fish the salty gulf more than we go the 15 miles to the lake. I really enjoy being outdoors and though the hunting is more to please James, I rather enjoy fishing the bay and have since I was little.
My life revolves around my family and latly it revolves around my new daughter and her every need, but I'm happy that way and so are they for now.
I am a very silly person when you look at it. On one hand I will turn my home into a farm if my husband doesn't keep me in check by bringing in every stray, injured, or unwanted animal that crosses my drive, and then turn around on the weekends and shoot hogs, rabbits, and squirrels for dinner with only a tiny bit of guilt. I suppose it came with marrying a deer hunter.
We aren't fanatical about living off nature or eating only what we grow or kill, please don't mis-understand, we simply get alot of joy and ful-fillment from knowing that we worked hard and hunted hard to get what we're eating, besides that it saves us an amazing amount of money when we don't have to buy any meat from the grocery store. I think that may have been the main reason that I chose to start a garden here, I have always enjoyed working on the yard, but I've never grown a real vegetable garden and with so much land and all the benifits it presented I couldn't see any reason not to. I hope that if it's not a raging failure this year, I'll learn how to make it successful for next year so eventually I can eliminate produce from the grocery list as well as meat. With any luck at all Emily will pick up the passion for nature and the outdoors from James and I, giving her healthy and safe hobbies that will last a lifetime.
Anyways I hope to add more interesting blogs in the future, maybe post a gardening blog later after I get it all started up too.
Until next time, healthy harvests, -Lily-

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