Gardening

I am beginning to harvest a few things from our garden.  The boys have been helping me weed as the rain we've been getting makes them pop out everywhere.
My strawberry patch is doing well. Ive noticed my plants are getting long shoots off them. It looks like my raised bed is full of plants now.
Last Thursday my oldest son, his girlfriend and I went to my grandmother's house then the 4 of us went to Stone Wall Farms to pick strawberries.  We ended up picking 56 quarts of strawberries. I did a lot of canning Thursday and Friday. We made Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling, Strawberry Rhubarb Jam and Strawberry Jelly. Grammie also let me pick some of her oregano which is now sring and chives.  My herbs I planted arent soing that well so in the fall I will make sure I add stuff to the soil.
While weeding the garden I did notice I have around 4 cabbages growing and 10 varrots. Im disappointed in those. I plan on plantinf more carrots amd seeing if they will grow.
 My peppers and tomatoes all have blossoms. My pumpkin plants are really big as well.  Here are a few pics of the last few days.

Our First Harvest from the Garden

Today I was able to cut some spinach from the garden. I left 4 qts of it in the fridge and we froze a quart to use later.

We also harvested chives. With the blossoms I am making a flavored vinegar. Some we put in the fridge and the others otheothers we froze.

I noticed today we had a very few carrots growing. Hopefully more pop up soon!

Today's Project

Today I plan on making Rhubarb Jam and xanning it. My boys have been asking me to make a cake that my grandmother makes amd she put Jam between the layers.
I still have quite a bit of rhubarb left to save for Strawberry Rhubarb Jam and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie filling.

(This bag is still half full of rhubarb)
Tonight for Father's Day we are going to th3 Drive Ins.  This is an inexpensive thing we so each year as a family.

Few gardening updates and a few pics

These are our first strawberries from our garden. There are a few more we are waiting to ripen. There will not be enough to make any jams or jellies from but we certainly will enjoy them as a snack.

Our 3 ducklings have grown so much in the last couple of weeks. We can actually hear these 3 quacking when we are in the laumdry room. Our muscovy ducks hissed but rarely quacked.
We have green pepper blossoms right now.

Next year I will plant more than 6 plants if tjese continue growing well.
Most things are growing great in our garden. The only things not up yet are carrots and cabbage. Our green beans have not done well this year but the purple beans are growing great.  All of our peas and corn have popped up.
The tomatoes seem to be growing taller. I have one that is blossomed. I really hope we get enough tomatoes to can as well as make salsa with.
Today we cleaned the ferret cage.

I finally picked rhubarb today and need to go wash it off. I'm hoping strawberries where i normally pick are ready soon as one place where they are ready charges per pound. When you want to pick 15 qts that adds up quickly!

Gardening Pics

My garden is fully planted. We added onto the garden as I realized had I planted everything I wanted, we would not have had enough room.
We have spinach, 11 pumpkin plants, 5 Cantaloupe and 1 honeydew growing so far.

(This is the new section)

This is an iris that was at my grandmother's house I transplanted here. They did not bloom last year.

Sunflowers are starting to come up near the house.

Here are the flowers planted in front of the house on the deck.

Beginnings of an Orchard/Plant buying Advice

Yesterday our loam/compost combination was delivered and our raised beds are now ready to be used. (Thank you Black Bear Lawncare) We also put soil in our potato buckets. I'm looming forward to planting our garden this weekend.
Yesterday we purchased another raspberry plant and a blackberry one. I'm excited to tell you we bought 2 plum trees!! We will be planting those closer to the house. I learned that most fruit trees need pollinator trees. (I really should start reading my gardening books) Next on the list to purchase will be a Contender Peach tree. I learned those are self pollinating. Then we eventually will buy apple trees and cherry trees as well as 2 more blueberry bushes.
I also learned some herbs are annuals. I was watching my herb containers and wondering why some were not growing. I read on a tag at one of the stores we wwre at they were annuals!
This weekend we are going to have an herb raised bed! I will post pics of my garden area this weekend. It will be later on as 4 of my boys have baseball games today.

I'd like to take a moment and discuss buying plants. I have purchased the majority of my plants from either Home Depot, Tractor Supply or Blue Seal. Home depot and Blue Seal take the best care of their plants. Tractor Supply you need to comb through what they have in stock as 70% has died.
 The absolute WORST place would be to buy from Lowes. Their flowers and herbs are all dry and brittle. A few of their bushes and shrubs were ok.  Look around before buying your fruit, veggies and flowers. Purchase from a place that cares for the plants so you dont plant something and it dies quickly.
I'm looking forward to gardening this year and will post pics soon of our garden area this weekend.
Happy Saturday

This week around the homestead in pics