Long Weekend

We had a long weekend to work in the yard...but we went junking/garage sale-ing/antiquing
instead. Then we sat around and enjoyed our picks.
The weather was lovely, and to be fair, Farmer Dad and Princess did do some work in
the yard. I mostly sat around watching and dreaming about flowers yet to bloom.
Here are some things already blooming.

Can you see the inspector? I sure hope we passed! ;-)

Things are seriously Greening up around here

Welcome back to our little corner of the Garden State.
We have been eating lettuce,asparagus and radishes
from the garden so far. The tomatoes, peas,corn,carrots,beets,parsnips
swiss chard,pak choi, green beans and many varieties
of both summer (zuchinni,yellow crookneck) and winter (butternut,pumpkin,acorn)
squash are all in the ground. We have peppers and eggplant ready to go in, but it has been cold
at night. There are herbs and flowers and fruit trees and bushes all waiting to bloom and fruit.
Our sweet potato will be going into a can this weekend. and I hope to get some more to grow from it.
We have been dividing perennials and spreading them around the yard and weeding and such on all but the rainy days.We are looking forward to a glorious summer Growing Our Own.
Princess has become quite the farm hand. She checks the asparagus every day for any ready to be picked,
lettuce and radishes too. She loves picking the orange mint to put in our iced tea.
It has been nice to sit outside doing our lessons and playing or just reading together on a blanket.
We are hoping to figure out how to make our own hammock this year as ours fell apart. I just refuse to spend another $100.00 to have another one for a couple of years.We got some books from the library,
some fabric from a fellow freecycler and a sewing machine from Great Grandma...should be interesting.
The fig tree has been filled with the sweetest little fledgling birds this week.Their heads are getting less fuzzy
now, but they are still sweet.

Tomato Pictures

This is what the garden looks like in the morning.Here are the three rows (5 sections)of tomatoes and then the skinny row of asparagus.


Today was bright and sunny and warm enough to be in short sleeves.
We spent most of it outside, weeding, transplanting, cleaning the play
structures, toys and furniture. We ate all of our meals outside too.




The peppers lined up like good little soldiers.(above)
A flower on the peas!
Cherries!




Now we are all bone tired.

May 15th Garden Pictures

This is what the garden looked like Yesterday...



FIG tree








.

Jersey Corn!

Tomatoes go in, and the rain comes down

We finally put our tomatoes in the ground last night.
We have culled down our list a bit to the tomatoes we especially liked
and there was a great deal more debate over this than "normal" households
may think. Because

• A)we have limited space, and so we just can not grow all we want.
• B)you cannot live on Tomatoes alone (hard to believe, I know,but it is true.)
  

We still have more plants, and hopefully we'll be able to plant them
this weekend at the community garden plot.
Two of each variety went in unless otherwise noted.
The varieties in are as follows (there may be additions/changes later)

1. Green Zebra
2. Amish Paste
3. Big Month
4. Eva's Purple Ball
5. Kosova
6. Azoycka
7. Tappy's Heritage
8. Mortgage Lifter
9. Rouge d'Iraq
10. Bonny Best
11. Bloody Butcher
12. Cherokee Purple
13. Big Rainbow
14. Paul Robeson
15. Black Krim
16. Anna Russian
17. Prudence Purple
18. Purple Russian
19. Japanese Black Trifle
20. Rose
21. Giant Belgium
22. San Marzano (4)
23. Amana Orange
24. Golden Ponderosa*
25. Orange Heirloom
26. Pineapple
27. Dad's Sunset
28. Flame
29. Golden Pineapple
30. Thai Pink Egg (1)
31. Black Prince (1)*
32. Russian Persimmon*
33. Snowball
34. Orange Banana

* I must remember to save seed for these varieties this year.
I did not get pictures, and it is raining today, so maybe tomorrow.

A bit of yard work on Mother's Day weekend

we moved a few perennials around and divided some,
only makes it more obvious that others need it as well
of course, but it is a start. Here are some random photos
of the yard before and after said chores....