Garden Visitors

Our summer garden is starting to come to a close, partly because the harvest season is winding down for the things we planted and partly because the farmer girl is not here to tend to it anymore.
But have enjoyed it and benefited from it...

 from squash, potatoes, onions, peppers and a few zucchini, to cantaloupe that we thought were watermelon at first, to enough tomatoes to freeze lots of tomato sauce and even some spaghetti sauce.  It has been fun for the girls of the house to see the fruits of our labors.

The boys,
well what's been fun for them were the visitors we had!

Deer!  Sorry no pictures, but there have been several.

A snapping turtle!  Did you know those little creatures are mean?  And will stand you off?  A make a weird hissing noise?

A skink.  Not to be confused with a skunk!  Again, no pictures...those critters are fast!

Lots of caterpillars.  One of which CJ finally talked me into bringing inside in the bug catcher.  And can you believe it, it actually lived, made a cocoon and turned into a butterfly!  I have paid companies to do this little experiment in the past.  No more!  There is a garden full of those wonders.

And then just recently, some kind of snake!  Luckily for me, the skin was all that was around to see at the time.  I jumped down into the garden bare foot and landed on it.  It took me a second to register it was the shed skin and NOT the actual snake, but I do think that in those few seconds my heart may have jumped into my throat!  While I am not terribly distressed over snakes, I prefer NOT to step on one!

This is minus about three more inches of skin that tore when I picked it up.

I am sure there have been more, like the raccoon we saw the wildlife protection people carry away in a trap last week and even possibly the fox we saw wandering the neighborhood at the first of the summer, but for now these will do for entertainment.

Garden Success- Kind of!

Many of you have seen the before garden photos here, and the mid-way point, here, but I wanted to share with you all some minor success.  Finally.  Now don't forget, we are a military family in a rental, with a golf course in the back yard behind that line of trees you see, and limited space.  If you earn your living farming or feed your family only on your garden you may want to turn your head or at least -please do not chuckle too loudly!

Squash and Zucchini- Both finally started coming in, though the zucchini a little slower.  While we were gone for a week a sweet neighbor tended our garden for us and was able to enjoy both.  I was thrilled!  Now there seems to be a second wave coming in and lots of flowers still, so we hope to start freezing some for the winter.  Well, some of us hope!

Tomatoes- Wow!  Last year was sparse to say the least.  This year I about lost hope when almost all the first batch we planted DIED!  But thanks to a few new plants and a few volunteer plants we have tomatoes.  Lot and lots of tomatoes.  Can't wait to can sauce and freeze salsa.  We found a new recipe for salsa we love.  (I'll post it on Friday!)  No more jarred Salsa here.

Peppers- Now while I do not love to eat peppers, I do love to cook with them.  My hopes are these little ones get big enough to chop up and freeze for the year.  We have lost several to what looks like rotting on the bottom.  Any ideas?

Onions- Sill in the ground growing.

Potatoes- ALP actually harvested a handful for dinner a few nights ago.  Don't you just love zipping out to the garden for your dinner?!  She and her grandfather planted lots so we have high hopes that there will be enough there to get us through the fall and winter as well.

Herbs- These are finally slowing down a little.  That is ok with me because there was a time in which I was pretty sure that the parsley was going to take over.  We have stored enough to use forever, I am sure, as well as pawned it off on any one who showed remote interest.  Pair that with the lemon thyme we gave away, the oregano, and the scallions we have dried, I am happy with the output.  The only thing I wish had done slightly better was the dill.  Happens to be my favorite.

Today's gathering

Oh, and I can't forget- WATERMELONS!  Which, by the way, we did not plant this year.  We did plant them last year but they need lots of space and will take over we learned and only got one or two good ones out of the deal, and so we said no to them this year.  They, however said yes to us.  We have 7 growing when I counted this morning and all doing well.  I do admit for me there is something kind of fun in trying to figure out what is growing where you did not plant anything.  ALP, however, does not think it is fun and said it is messing up her pretty, planned garden.

So there you have it- our attempt to garden, grow healthy food for our family, save a little money and have fun in the process.  Yes, I dream of adding lettuce and beans and corn and cucumbers and more, but for now I am happy with what the Lord has supplied! 

How is your garden doing?

On Tuesday, check back here to see how other CREW members' gardens are doing!  Maybe we will find a little inspiration- or empathy! This post is also linked up to Raising Arrows!  Check them out here! 

Garden hope

See the garden?  Do you remember the before???  We are not as hopeless as I thought and I am so excited.  Things are finally beginning to grow.  In the far back peeking up are potatoes.  In front of those, which you cannot see, are rows of onions.  Then come the tomatoes.  Last year we had to beg the plants to produce.  This year we not only have about 8 healthy plants we planted, but now have about 5 that are volunteers from last year.  Who knew?!  In the middle are zucchini and squash plants.  We hope to actually get to show you pictures of vegetables by next month.  Hiding under the squash are our three pepper plants.  I am thinking they may need to be moved since they are not getting much sun now. 

Blue tub alert!
These, by the way, are the same sorry plants we showed you last month.  Do not think they have grown one inch.  As a matter of fact, now that I have looked back at the pictures, they seem to have shrunk. Why didn't someone tell us it was a bad idea...oh, I remember, I asked you kindly not to.  Next time- ignore me!

These are the few herbs we grow.  I know it does not seem like a lot, but it really is enough for our family, as I sadly do not use herbs like I should.  Just never know what to do with then.  We have gotten to share parsley with a neighbor because it keeps trying to take over.  There is also dill (MY FAVORITE), oregano and scallions.  We usually end up drying it all and using throughout the year.  Spices are expensive!  If you have one that you grow, AND love, AND you can tell me what to do with it, I would love your suggestions!

This is my oldest working.  Since she really does all the work and is the one that deals with ticks (my LEAST favorite thing in the world, I am pretty sure)  I thought I better give her some credit.  She is a hard worker.  The funny thing about this picture is she kept finding new plants that we did not plant come up.  We finally decided to let them grow and see what would happen, hence our new watermelon plants that want to take over the garden.  Seriously!  I guess composting is good for more than one reason.  Last year our garden had perfect little rows and did not produce like we wanted it to.  This year, much to ALP's dismay, it is a haphazard mess with NO organization, but is lush and showing much promise.  Oh well.

-This is by no means our dream garden.  That requires land of our own and acres of crops. Not that season for our military moving family- YET!

-This will by no means sustain our family.  A family of six requires more and some of my crew are not even particularly veggie loving folks.

But it is a start.  It is more than last year.  And it makes the momma happy!

"Then the Lord said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seeds in it, according to their various kinds.'  And it was so."  Genesis 1:11

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday sponsored by A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa and GNOWFGLINS and Culinary Bliss.  Check out their awesome blogs!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

It is our great desire to grow much of our own food; our being mine and my oldest, mind you!  We dabbled in it a little last year and are trying to expand a little more this year.  Keep in mind, we live in a rented house right now and do not have tons of land.  As a matter of fact, out our back door you can see a golf course.  Not exactly my dream land, but we are trying to make do with what the Lord has provided for this season. 

Anyway...if you are looking for a how to...you are in the wrong place friend!  Our biggest success last year was cucumbers and jalapeno peppers.  Not exactly life sustaining crops. huh?  We did manage to freeze tomatoes for sauce, but not nearly the amount we needed.  We have planted 16 tomato plants but this is what they look like right now...

Not exactly encouraging!  If you have an idea of what's wrong, please, feel free to clue us in!  We did just get 24 hours straight of rain so I was in hopes they would have perked up this morning, but as you can see....NOPE!

These are some of our squash plants.  We cheated and did not start these from seeds this year.  We  planted half in the garden and half in containers, as you can see.  There are zuchinni plants in another container as well.  Reason being... SQUASH BUGS!  They took over in the garden last year and ruined about all of our plants.  (The oldest does NOT want to put any chemicals in the garden!  Me, I wanted to stand out there with insecticide and just wait to spray one of those little bugs!) We want to test the theory that maybe some plants will be a little more protected in the containers.  If you are shaking your head and know this is not going to work, don't tell us!  ;)  We want to pretend it is a good idea for a few more weeks.

Here are our onions and potatoes, both planted by my father-in-law a few weeks ago.  (His garden by the way, is amazing, and puts ours to shame.)  Both are coming up beautifully, go figure.  This family does not even like onions for the most part, other than I do cook with them, and we may end up with tons.  The potatoes will be great!

This is one of 3 pepper plants.  Again, we do not just eat peppers, but I do like to cook with them so the plan is just to chop up and freeze what we are able to get.

The herbs.  Again, another cheater plant.  We have tried seeds numerous times with no luck, so I finally got mad gave in and bought a few plants. 

Cucumbers are in, but have not come up yet.  I still have hope!

Here are some of our flowers, maybe we should just stick to those!

taken by R

In my dreams my garden looks amazing.

For now, I will settle for this...

It does have a fence now, thank you to the deer!

Someday, when this Air Force moving family settles down in one place, I pray we will have abundant land and a place for my dream garden.  Hey, maybe by then we will know what we are doing!  Until, we welcome any advice and appreciate you muffling your laughter!

How about you?  What are you growing, and as long as you are writing, share your best gardening advice!  Please!

This post is linked up to Our Simple Farm...Simple Living Wednesdays.  Pop in and give her a visit, you will love what you see!

We are also linking up with The Homeschool Village!  YOu may get to see some better gardens there!