Well, I didn't get any pictures from early in the season, and, as usual, I didn't get a great jump start this year. However, my goal each year is to do better than the last, and so far we are doing MUCH better than last year! In March I planted some beets, peas and broccoli. I never saw any broccoli. I'm not sure if it was the soil or heat or something else, but the beets and peas did great! I need to figure out why my beets are not bigger. I think we have too much sand??? Everything above ground seems to grow very well though, and our peas, though not very much in quantity due to a couple of bad hail storms, were very yummy!
Later into the hotter season, I didn't get as much planted as quickly as I would have liked to. I blame it on the pregnancy and CONSTANTLY being tired. UGH! But I pushed through as much as I could, and once I finally made it to that 2nd trimester and had a little more energy, I was able to do more. (The family did help, but it was mostly me working on it.) In that time I had lost some baby plants, mostly okra and tomatoes. I was mostly disappointed because I had used up all my organic, heirloom seeds and had to resort to Wal-Mart ones for replanting! Maybe I'll order more next time. Part of the reason they went bad is because I used the Jiffy pellets for starting my seeds, and they were horrible! They were affordable, so I thought I'd give them a try, and once the plants all reached a few inches high and were ready for planting, they died very quickly. They also all had very, very thin stems and were very unhealthy-looking. I will NOT be buying those ever again!
Once we finally got some other plants in the ground, we had some strawberries, okra, squash, peppers, musk melon and oodles of cherry tomato plants! Still waiting to be planted, I also have more okra, bush beans, 3 different types of pumpkin, 2 types of watermelon, butternut squash, and carrots. If I can just get them in the ground ASAP, they should do very well!
So here are pictures taken this morning of what we have so far! Um, ignore the tall grass & weeds. We always do a little TOO well at growing those!
These are volunteer sunflowers that took over my first garden. They overtook the peas, but at least we were able to get a lot of good ones before they died off! YUM!
From top to bottom: squash, peppers and melons!
seedlings
Okra! Our favorite!
Mostly weeds, but if you look closely, you might see the 24 cherry tomato plants! The weeds are not up against the plants, but, um, we still need to get them out of there!
A lovely bloom on the okra. :)
Our first okra of the season! We each had a bite....just enough to tease us!
They were delicious! Freshly picked raw okra is the BEST!!!
My trees are doing very well! I have two pecan, two chestnut, one granny smith apple, one almond and one cherry.
Our oldest chickens, 4 females and 1 male. These girls should start laying any day now! Yea!!!! We have a white Wyandotte, two Rhode Island Reds, Black Minorca and the rooster is a Golden Laced Wyandotte.
Our "teen" chicks. These two are around 5-6 weeks old. The bigger, lighter one is an Americana and the smaller one is a Russian Orloff. We can't figure out why the Orloff is so much smaller, but it seems to be healthy!
And these little darlings are only a week old! We have two Rhode Island Reds and two mixed breeds (but should be good layers).
So that is our little homestead so far, here in the city! My goal is to expand a little each year, as much as the city will allow, until hopefully one day soon we can move to the country and get goats, sheep, etc. and do what we want!!!! Happy farming, everyone! :)
Broccoli is a cool weather plant. Try planting in the fall or early spring! :o) I want to try chickens but I have a bird dog. :o( I was hoping for no dogs after these but Brian said he wants a boxer. lol I think it's never ending! My tomatoes look really bad but are big. My cucumber is still growing but we only got one so far. Greens are done for the season. We also have a tennis ball sized watermelon! Strawberries are getting flowers again. Blackberries probably won't produce this year since it's still small. Stevia is doing well though I don't want to pick from it until it is better established. Oh oh! I have 2 bell peppers that are not big enough yet but getting close.
ReplyDeleteYour garden sounds great! And you're in the city too, so way to go!!! :)
ReplyDeleteWe had to get rid of most of our dogs, mostly the female. They are always the trouble-makers, for some reason. Our male is such a good dog!
I planted the broccoli in March, so I'm not sure what happened. :( I mentioned heat because I think it got hot fast once the snow finally stopped coming! It may partly be my soil though, who knows?! It is supposed to grow well here, so maybe I'll give it another try in the fall. *sigh*
Way to go Cindy!! Even pregnant you got alot done!
ReplyDeleteHave you been to the homestead post site? They sell the homesteading for beginners videos through NGJ..they're great! You'd love them!!
http://homesteadcommunitypost.ning.com/
Jamie :)
Oh Cindy I am SO proud of YOU! I didn't even attempt to keep up with the garden when pregnant with Ryan or Ryker. I also can't wait for the day we can make our chicken tractor and have chickend too it just wasn't in the cards this year. The weather hasn't been to nice to the gardens this year. It's been better but we have some zuccini growing, lots of cherry tomatos no big ones ready yet, one ear of corn done so far, 3 bell peppers ready, a lot of strawberry, onions and garlic. We haven't had any squash yet nor watermelons or red peppers either, or cucumbers. You are doing an excellent job Cindy!
ReplyDeletewow - so fun! you're so ambitious! I love seeing what's going on at your house and all that you're up to! very cool!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say I have tried the jiffy pots also and they don't work at all. It's best if you just use the tray and use your own dirt to fill it up.Then transplant when they are ready.
ReplyDeleteYou garden is looking good. Mine did horrible this yr bc we moved into this rent house and I didn't have the time or money to fix the horrible soil. It literally smelled like chalk dust as I tilled. Anyways at least we have a ton of cayenne peppers and a couple of banana peppers producing something. Even my giant sunflowers died. They got mold on them from the large amount of rain that we got.
I so miss my chickens! SIGH! I can have them here in the city but we are hoping to move back to Blanchard in a few months so I'll just wait.