Garden Update

I'm just hopping on here today to give a quick photo update of the kitchen garden. It's not doing too bad.

~ Blueberries ~

~ Yellow Brandywine Tomatoes ~

~ Broccoli ~

~ Carrots ~

~ Corn ~

~ Green Beans ~

~ Mr. Stripey Tomatoes ~

~ Pole Lima Beans ~

~ Spinach ~

I hope all of your gardening plans are going well.
Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

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Starting Seeds ~ 2018 Kitchen Garden

~ Starting Seeds In Yogurt Cups ~

I've never had much luck with the seed starting kits that you can buy at the garden supply store. Instead I opt to re-use single serve yogurt cups and potting soil. I'm really liking these clear Stonyfield yogurt cups because the paper label isn't glued down.

~ Big Boy Starting Seeds ~

I had planned on starting seeds at the beginning to middle of March but we have gotten a little behind. Here's what we were supposed to have finished already:

Seeds To Start Indoors 5-6 Weeks Before Last Frost (March 6-13)

Broccoli

Brussels Sprouts

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Eggplant

Peppers

Sweet Potatos

Tomatoes

So far we've started Yellow Brandywine tomatoes, Red Brandywine tomatoes, Mr. Stripey tomatoes, Sugar Lump tomatoes, Pepperocini peppers, Red Cherry peppers, and Black Beauty eggplant. With 9 varieties of peppers, 2 varieties of eggplant and 7 varieties of tomatoes in our seed inventory, we have some decisions to make. Should we plant a few of each variety or a lot of a few varieties? We are currently leaning hard on planting only a few varieties. 

Seeds To Plant In The Garden 2-4 Weeks Before Last Frost (March 20 - April 3)

Beets

Carrots

Celery

Peas

Potatoe

Radish

We are squarely in the middle of this time frame. However, I'm not sure when we will get to planting seeds outside as we took down the garden a few weeks ago and haven't set it back up yet. What I mean by that is that we took all the raised beds out of the garden area and spread out the small amount of soil that was left in them.

We had a load, 11 cubic yards, of mulch delivered and then it snowed. We are currently waiting for the 13" of snow to melt so we can get to the mulch. It will be moved to the garden area and spread out as a base, so we don't have to worry about mowing between the beds. Once the mulch is spread out, we can put the beds where we want them and have a load of topsoil and mushroom soil delivered...... and moved to fill up the beds.

Our new time frame is to have the garden put back together and everything planted, as listed on this page, by the end of April. Wish us luck!!

Until next time,

May all your endeavors be a blessing!

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"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  Genesis 8:22

** This Is Not A Sponsored Post **

Todays Harvest

I'm so pleased with our garden harvest today. We haven't worked in the garden for so long that the weed have totally taken over. Thankfully, neglect doesn't stop the productivity of our nightshades.

What a great start to our morning's harvest!!

We originally went out to see if there was anything left of the potato patch. The plants had come up beautifully, grew thick and strong, and then died. I totally missed noticing that they died because the weeds took over so fast that the bed always looked green. By the time I noticed what had happened, I gave up all hope of having a harvest.

The last (and only) time that I left the potatoes in the ground the mice had very nicely eaten them all. When we went to harvest, we found lovely holes where there had once been mature potatoes. After that episode, I vowed to harvest the potatoes as soon as all the plants had died back. That didn't happen this year, of course.

As I was saying, we originally went out to see if there were any potatoes to harvest because I purchased a lot of chicken in my last grocery trip and I had wanted to make chicken in the crock-pot. I'll post the recipe another time. I had just used all the potatoes that I had on hand and my fingers were crossed that by some chance, we could get at least a few potatoes out of the bed. I was well pleased to find half a bucket full.

Then, we all turned our attention to the adjacent beds that were full to overflowing with tomatoes and eggplants. I'm surprised how many cherry tomatoes are still green. But it's reassuring that there will be plenty more in the next days and weeks. A great deal were already split and many more were already on the ground. Those will all go to the hens.

Today's harvest all washed up and sitting pretty.

Until next time,
May all your gardening adventures be a blessing!

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"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

Finally Planted Tomatoes

It has been so chilly here that I haven't wanted to transplant to tomatoes into the garden. I have been putting them on the back porch to harden them off. Today they finally went in.

Heirloom Brandywine Tomato Plants

I try to use regional heirlooms as much as possible in my garden. These are Brandywine tomatoes and are a wonderful, large, soft skinned, fleshy variety. I've also grown the yellow, orange, and black Brandywines and saved seeds from each. This year I didn't get anything started inside so I just hopped over to the local garden supply center and picked up a six pack. I actually got the smallest plants that they had because I knew that the weather wouldn't be right for planting for weeks. By that time, they would be all sold out and I would have missed my chance to have some this year. Living on the mountain puts me 2 weeks behind those that live in the valley. My season also ends 2 weeks before theirs.

The State Of My Raised Bed Kitchen Garden

My poor kitchen garden has been so neglected this year. Here is the state of the bed when I went out to plant my tomatoes this morning. What a mess!! The children had been dumping grass clippings into this bed instead of taking to the chicken run. I'm not sure if it was hurting or helping things here. It was definitely 100 times easier to turn over than the bed that had pine shavings in it. When I turned the soil over it was the beautiful black dirt that I have grown to love. Weeding this bed turned out to be no problem because the soil was so loose.

Raised Kitchen Garden Bed After Weeding and Turning the Soil

Happy Brandywine Tomato Plant in It's New Bed

The box that I chose to put my tomatoes in this year is 6' by 4'. That gave me exactly the space I needed for the entire 6 pack of plants. This is a very stocky plant that bears heavy fruit in abundance, so I will need to add supports as the plants get bigger. For now they just need watered..... and for the chickens to stay out of them. 

Raised Bed Kitchen Garden Planted With Heirloom, Brandywine Tomatoes

I'm very pleased with how this bed has turned out. Now to tame the jungle that's growing in the other beds.

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