Veggie Treats

WE HAVE CROPS!!! Our garden just sort of exploded with veggies! The weather has finally turned hot and "summery" and I am pretty sure that the garden likes that a lot. We have enjoyed zucchini, peas, green beans, carrots and onions. All that work and planting in the spring was WORTH IT! Our kids love it too. They are so interested in the veggies that we pick and the pick them up an study them. We let them try them too. What a great learning experience!

We seem to have a live in visitor in the garden. A little rabbit seems to think that peas are delicious. I have heard that hair can stop them.... is that true??

~ Sarah

Huh? Weeds??

Sarah and I have been trying desperately to catch up on weeding this week, since we're both home with relatively normal schedules this week.

Recently while Sarah was weeding in the lettuce/salad greens she pulled up this. Huh? Is that a weed? Or just an overgrown radish? Our Radishes are at least ten rows away... How did that happen?

We're Back!

Sorry, blog friends! We haven't been around in a little while. Diana broke her ankle and I have been out of town and not feeling well so our blog took a little bit of a back seat for a while!

Our garden is growing a lot now. Our weather hasn't been the best here in NY- we have had tons of rain and cool temperatures most of the summer and well, our garden has suffered a bit. We have been able to harvest some lettuce and radishes- and even a small onion (that was delicious!) but nothing else has fruit on it yet. A lot of our plants are getting blooms now though, so that is comforting!....... I guess I am getting impatient! I want to bite though a crunchy green bean and fry up some zucchini! This is the hardest time of gardening! :)

Our cabbage leaves are being eaten by a brown beetle! Anyone have the problem? Do you know the name of any powder that we can put on them?? I am afraid they are going to be gone before harvest time!

I am going to try and get a picture of our garden this week.... our weeds are taking over so try and ignore that ;)

Happy gardening!

Our 1st Harvest!!

Salad Greens, pulled from our garden on July 7, 2009. Isn't it beautiful? :-)

Radishes picked from our garden on July 7, 2009. Aren't they lovely? :-)
The salad I made for my family for dinner...we ate the radishes out and gave the salad greens to the chickens...since it tasted like grass....whats up with that?

Vacation, Weeding and Growth!

I've been on vacation all week and haven't had a lot of time for our garden this week. While I've been having fun with my family, I've missed the garden (and Sarah!)!!

Sarah has been out in the garden weeding a bit this week, but I am simply amazed at how fast the weeds grow!! I just went out to take a look around and noticed all sorts of little weeds poking up! Sarah and I laugh a bit at ourselves, because we just can't let those weeds grow like some of our nearby friends, who it doesn't seem to bother.

The one night I could go out to the garden this week, Sarah and I hilled the potatoes that are really starting to take off! I don't see any new spouts this week, but I am hoping that we get a few more. Potatoes weren't on our list to plant this year, but a friend had extra and they were free, so we decided to go ahead and try them out, since we had the room.

Everything is really growing beautifully. We will soon need to set up the trellis for our peas, so I'd better get to work arranging that! :-) We did try to pick a radish, but they aren't ready yet, so we'll be waiting a bit longer. The green beans, most of the corn, onions, summer squash and zucchini are growing fantastically! I am not convinced with most of the cabbage and we were able to pick a bit of lettuce (picture to come!). We also planted more lettuce. The cucumbers (which I started inside) are my favorite, since I've known them since infancy..LOL! They look marvelous! Tomatoes and all but one pepper plant are doing well as well. I am not convinced with the melon and watermelon.

Our pumpkins and winter squash, the last things we planted are really starting to grow now! Those were the last things we planted and its sooooo exciting to have a full garden of plants! I did buy the pumpkin packet this year, but had saved the winter squash seeds from a squash I had bought at the farmers' market last year. Saving my own seeds was another one of those experiments I had really wanted to try. I hope to do more of this after this year. Does anyone have experience with this? We'd love to hear about it!

Carrots, potatoes and watering

Well, we have some carrot sprouts! Woo Hoo! They are cute and little like every other plant we've had! Our potatoes are really starting take off so tomorrow, we are going to hill them up. It looks like all of our watermelon has died and we only have a few melons left...we'll see if they can make it!!
Do any of you have advice on how often to water a garden? I have been doing some research on it and I was wondering if any seasoned gardeners out their had any tips! I have read that every 3-5 days is a good amount of time (weather and temperatures taken into account). I just don't want to starve the plants or over-water them... there is a reason I don't have many plants in my house....;)

Our Little Visitor

Diana and I have FINISHED PLANTING!!! It is so nice to have all the plants and seeds in the ground! Now all we do it watch and wait...oh, and weed... ;)

While we were weeding out our corn this week, we noticed some foot prints that didn't resemble ours or our little ones. It seems that we had a visitor to our garden. A deer! Our little friend walked through the corn, across the carrots and out of the garden. She- or he- didn't eat anything so hopefully she won't be back to nibble!!
Our potatoes are starting to grow. Once they get to be two inches tall, or so, we will hill them so that no potato is exposed to the sun. They would turn green and be potentially poisonous to us. We haven't seen any activity where the carrots are but, we have been told and have read that they take a LONG time to grow. Our lettuce doesn't seem to be thriving either. We may just replant that. We used some old seeds and that could be the problem.

Here is the final listing of what we have planted in our garden plot:

CORN- planted May 21
CABBAGE- planted May 22
LETTUCE- Planted May 26
CARROTS- planted May 26
PEAS- planted June 2
POTATOES- planted June 2
ONIONS- planted June 2
PEAS- planted June 5
RADISHES- planted June 5
SUMMER SQUASH- planted June 5
ZUCCHINI- planted June 8
GREEN BEANS- planted June 8
MELON- planted June 10
WATERMELON- planted June 10
TOMATOES -planted June 10- then REPLANTED June 17
CUCUMBERS- planted June 17
ACORN SQUASH- planted June 17
PEPPERS- planted June 17
PUMPKIN- planted June 17


That is quite the line up of fresh food! This coming week, we should be able to see if our radishes are ready to harvest! We can't wait to see!!

Up to now

Our Corn is growing so well!!

Our Green Beans seemingly sprouted over night!

Our Onions are also growing fantastically!

Well, Diana and I are getting to the finish line! We are going to push to have the whole garden planted no later than Wednesday. I have been gone visiting my parents all weekend so we lost a few days and, of course, there is always the weather that we have to work around! It is looking like the tomatoes are not going to make it so, today I went and bought some at a local home and garden center. I am thinking that starting plants indoors is NOT my strong point. Next time I do this, I may be BUYING the plants instead! :) Besides, my cats think they are fun to nibble on which makes me angry!
Last Wednesday, I had a playgroup here, at my house. Of course that brings MORE kids into the mix. We tried to keep them out of the garden but, we did have a few veggie casualties... Thankfully it was only a little bit of our lettuce!

Here is a list of everything that we have planted up to today:

CORN- planted May 21
CABBAGE- planted May 22
LETTUCE- Planted May 26
CARROTS- planted May 26
PEAS- planted June 2
POTATOES- planted June 2
ONIONS- planted June 2
PEAS- planted June 5
RADISHES- planted June 5
SUMMER SQUASH- planted June 5
ZUCCHINI- planted June
GREEN BEANS- planted June 8
MELON- planted June 10
WATERMELON- planted June 10
TOMATOES -planted June 10

Getting Close!

I think we're finally getting close to having the entire garden planted!

Yesterday, Sarah and I weeded out grass and roots that went all the way to China! We started around 1:45 (when all the kids were down for their nap). One by one the kids woke up, but we kept working (and chasing them out of the garden) and worked until 5:45!! PHEW!!

In the end we planted tomatoes, watermelon and cantaloupe, all things we had started indoors. They're all cute little baby plants, and I'm sure they are much happier in the ground now.

When I went out to look this evening I could see a lot more little sprouts coming up! Cute little baby peas, onions, salad greens, cabbage, radishes, green beans and perhaps (it could just be weeds LOL!) summer squash! :-)

Hey if your reading our blog, could you let us know? We'd love to know! :-)

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

OUR BEAUTIFUL CORN SPROUTS

Diana and I spent several hours in the garden today- half of which was with kids! All of them were slathered up with Sun Screen and ready for fun in the June sun! We had enough toys for them to play with that they generally stayed away from our planted seeds but I love the look on Luke and Moriah's faces when we tell them to get off the garden. They just stop and stare at you like, "What?!" And Diana laughed when I actually said to my son, "Don't eat dirt- it's not food!" which was fine because I laughed when Eli smiled at us and we saw a huge dirt chunk stuck in his front teeth...apparently, dirt is a food group.

SO, here is a list of everything that we have planted up to today:

CORN- planted May 21
CABBAGE- planted May 22
LETTUCE- Planted May 26
CARROTS- planted May 26
PEAS- planted June 2
POTATOES- planted June 2
ONIONS- planted June 2
PEAS- planted June 5
RADISHES- planted June 5
SUMMER SQUASH- planted June 5

and much more to come!!!!!!

WEEDS!

Today's big project....YANK OUT THOSE WEEDS! I think we have just over half of the garden planted now (Sarah will give an update on what and when we planted when she gets a few minutes). The half that is not planted yet has WEEDS! Tons and tons of them! UGH! What a big pain in the butt! So out we'll go today to yank them out! Wish us luck! The kids should enjoy it though and since we'll be on the not planted side, it won't be ridiculously hard to keep them off the planted side. :-) Oh how I do love those baby footprints in the dirt though!

~Diana

Our Garden Plot

So, here are a few pictures of the garden before anything was planted. Big right?! Well, it's not- according to people around here! My (Sarah's) husband (Brian) said that he thought it could be BIGGER!

Sarah's Side of the Story

First let me tell you- I have never done any gardening. The first year I was married, I had a container with a tomato plant but that was the extent of the veggie gardening I had ever done.  I have memories of picking green beans- lots of green beans- with my grandmother when I was a little girl. I always enjoyed it and loved the taste of a freshly picked  bean. I think that has always stuck with me. I only have good memories of gardens so I thought that maybe I would try my own now that I have a family (and while I am not pregnant or have a newborn)!

I was so glad when Diana and I decided to have a garden together. Well, it was sorta decided FOR us but, I think all for the best! Everything was sort of intimidating at first so it was nice to have someone in the same boat along for the ride as well! Diana and I work well together and have known each other for about 12 years and good friends for about 10 years so that makes things easy! It's not hard to go out gardening and work hard in the sun when your friend is doing it with you!

Then we add in three toddlers! We are stay-at-home-moms and have little ones to take care of along with the garden. That adds a whole new element to gardening... how do you keep a one year old out of the cabbage patch? how do you tell a three year old that they can't help plant peas? Join us on our adventure... and fun!

Diana's side of the story

Reposted from my personal blog.

This year I was super excited about starting my first garden. I think I started dreaming about it last August when it started to turn cold up here in the North Country. I'd had some rather unsuccessful container gardens my first two years of marriage. I seem to grow flowers beautifully, but my veggies never produced much. The first year I blamed that on the yucky city air, and the second on the gorgeous new born. :-)

So this year, our first year in a house, instead of a cramped apartment, and the first year in the actual country I had BIG plans. BIG plans that amounted to a list of stuff I wanted to grow, advice from my awesomely amazing 86 year old grandma, and half flowers, half veggies and more ideas than I could ever imagine having time for. Caring for a home and these two adorable, rambunctious toddlers (I'm not at all partial to them, if you can't tell) is so much work, I could just imagine getting frustrated and totally in over my head.

So...I settled for a few pots out front, a wildflower bed out back, a sunflower patch to the side of the house (this has yet to be seen if it happens) and a veggie garden somewhere. Oh yes...somewhere. I needed to figure out where though. Our back yard is pure rock. To the right of the house is our driveway and a cow pasture. Not planting in the front yard because its too close to the road and would just plain look tacky...so to the left of the house it is! There was only one problem...the hill. Its not a huge hill or anything, but would definitely make for some challenges, and since the only part of flat ground we have seems forever away from the house...WHERE WOULD THE GARDEN GO?! I figured maybe I'd just have to forgo my veggie garden plans for the year and do more trips to the farmers' market. Maybe that just sounds easier anyway, because lets face it! I have two toddlers to care for!

My friend of over ten years, Sarah, lives next door. Its a wonderful set up really. We share one VERY large yard between our houses. Anyway...Sarah decided to give gardening a try this year as well. I was still undecided when John knocked on our door that day. John is the farmer, with whom we rent from. He had come to plow our gardens, but he had a plan. Why not do one big garden together instead of separate ones. We both agreed, having never spoken of it together. :-) And off he went to plow our garden in Sarah's side of the yard.

He kept plowing and plowing! WOW. That is one very large garden! Did we really need something that big? Will we ever be able to fill it with my two babes and Sarah's one? Neither of us has ever REALLY gardened alone before...we've read books, magazines, websites...but to actually plant something that large?

Well...now we're in the middle of planting and have decided that we can definitely fill that great big huge garden! :-) I think I can speak for both of us when I say this: we are really having fun at it too! :-)

Want to follow our gardening extravaganza? Visit our new blog: Amateurs Gardening with Toddlers in Tow. :-)