Good Dirt

This is the third year for our garden on Swiss Hill (cannot call it our new house anymore). And we finally have some "good dirt" as Barefoot Dad declared yesterday. He has been adding stuff (peat, poop, and I honestly don't know what else) to it and tilling it for 3 years. Here he is with his crew yesterday.

Garden 2010

We planted our garden exactly one week ago. Mom Confession: had a little help from The Dirt Diva. She took these pictures. More on that later. BP + BB were so into it. Fingers crossed we will have beans, sugar snap peas, pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, eggplants, onions, a variety of tomatoes, watermelons, raspberries, blueberries, carrots, lettuce, sunflowers, nasturtiums, and all kinds of herbs. We planted transplants + seeds. BP + BB discovered yesterday that some of the seeds they "tucked in" had started to sprout. They screamed with excitement!

Garden Design

I have been using this book, 'Big Book of Garden Designs', to plan a perennial garden for the side of our house. I have a little plant knowledge and with this book as my resource it has been a fun and easy project. I would recommend this book by Marianne Lipanovich and Tom Wilhite to anyone undertaking a garden project. It gives hundreds of garden designs for all climates and zones. It also provides a design rendering and a picture, as well as a plant list with Latin and common names, and number of plants needed. Definitely a book that will get a lot of use if you are a gardener or want to become one.

The Waterer

BP is the official waterer at our house and she takes her job very seriously!

Burpee

We are patiently waiting for our Bur[ee order to come. For anyone looking for seeds or plants, I highly recommend Burpee. You can order a catalog online and have it in three days. They have EVERYTHING...flowers, herbs, vegetables, you name it. They have both seeds and plants. Our seeds should be here any day now and our plants will arrive in mid May. The raised beds are finished (Thanks to Daddy). Now if we could only decide on a garden fence we will then have a place to plant everything we have coming. Always a work in progress here on the big hill!

Thanks Papa!

When planting a small orchard it helps to have one of these. So thank you Papa for letting us borrow your tractor or The Barefoot Dad would still be out there digging the nine holes! The girls enjoyed the tractor just as much as your son did!

Fruit Trees

Saturday was "plant an orchard day" for The Barefoot Family. BF Dad gets some wild ideas, it is what we love most about him. He just doesn't get ideas, he actually follows through with them. The guy has some serious motivation! Anyway, he dug nine holes, planted eight trees (I have ot get one more this week), and then fenced them from the predators (deer), all in a day. I carried buckets of water to give them a drink and now we cross our fingers that we will have apples, pears, and cherries someday, the tags say this year. BP and BB were there to supervise the whole process.

Two Pumpkins

When we ran out of room in our garden, I planted a few pumpkin plants in the corner of our yard by the compost pile and now almost four months later we have two little Sugar Pumpkins growing. It looks funny to see them growing among scttered rocks of an old rock wall. I guess pumpkins will grow anywhere.

So we have two little pumpkins, one for each of our girls. BP is very excited to pick the pumpkins and I think they will be ready soon. I once heard that if you tap them with your fingers and they sound hollow they are ready to be picked. Is this true? Anyone know?

Harvest Time

It is harvest time in our garden and we are all so excited to see the reward of our hard work. We gathered cherry tomatoes ("matoes" as BP says), string beans, berries, sunflowers, zuchini ("kini"), and cucumbers over the last three days. The Barefoot Princess totally gets the connection between what we planted and what we are able to eat now. The last picture is a fresh from the garden meal we had this past week... Chicken with basil, fresh mozzarella, red peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Next on my baking list... Chocolate Zuchini bread. Yummy! If it comes out well I will post the recipe.

So Lovely...

A sweet pea flower from our garden. Every time I see them I think of my little sweet pea, The Barefoot Princess.

Plight of the Bees...

We are doing our part to support our local honeybees. My husband won this garden bee skep on Ebay for me. When it came in the mail I was so excited to open it and add it to our garden. It was the perfect finishing touch!
Bee skeps encourage bees to make a home and then to visit the flowers and veggies nearby to pollinate them. Many plants, such as apples, blueberries, broccoli, carrots, and onions require pollination to grow and produce. For the last couple of years honeybess have been mysteriously abandoning their hives and disappearing, never to return. This puzzles and worries scientists and farmers, who fear their disappearing act may be the result of pesticide use, a dwindling food supply, or a virus that is attacking the bees' immune systems. Whatever the case, honeybees are important to our food supply and flowers and since honeybess do not sting they are very welcome in our garden! Oh and BP loves honey on her cheeiros... just another reason to welcome the bees!

Garden Update

With the extremely hot weather we had last week and lots of water... our garden grew like crazy. So did the weeds so we have been watering and weeding everyday. Here are some pictures from this afternoon. I cannot wait until the teepee is completely covered. I think BP will have so much fun hiding in their and having a place of her own in the garden.

The Fruits of Our Labor

We have some strawberries that are almost ready to be picked. The Barefoot Princess just made the connection today between the produce in the grocery store and what we are trying to grow in our garden. It happened when she saw these strawberries. She said, "Just like we buy in Hannaford, mommy?" "For our smoothies." So simple, but so cute!

Garden Update

A quick garden update...

Almost everything has been planted. I still have to plant the morning glories and beans around the teepee for the second time because the first time was unsucessful. We had to replace a ton of topsoil that we bought with better dirt from our neighbor's compost pile. (Jack and Lorraine save the day once again.) With the new dirt everything we had planted is much happier and thriving once again. It was sad to watch the little seedlings that BP tended to in our sunroom slowly wither away when we transplanted them into the "bad" dirt. Thank goodness we figured out the problem just in time and before we lost everything. Apparently we had a compaction problem, at least that is what our internet research told us. Live and learn!

So far we have an herb garden with...

Basil

Thyme

Oregano

Lavendar

Mint

Sage

Pineapple Sage

Rosemary

We have a vegetable garden with...

Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

Yellow Heirloom Tomatoes

Pink Heirloom Tomatoes

Sweet Peppers

Broccoli

Zuchini

Slicing Cucumbers

Pickling Cucumbers

Heirloom Carrots

Regular Carrots

Peas

Beans

We have a flower garden with...

Zinnias

Sunflowers

Nasturiums

Pansies

Scented Geraniums

The garden has been more work than I ever realized, but so fun and totally worth it. We (all four of us) have spent many hours together outside enjoying each other, talking, and playing while we work. It has been a learning expereince in many ways. I will keep you posted as our garden grows.

Seedling Success...

As you can see from our picture we have to transplant our seedlings very soon. They sprouted and grew so fast. I swear we could watch them grow. It must have been the weather we had last week or we are just very lucky. BP checked them every morning, noon, and night. She watered them once a day and screamed almost every time she walked into the sunroom. Seeing her seedlings never got old for BP! So these little guys will head out to the cedar raised beds BP and BB's Daddy just built for them in the garden. Stayed tuned pictures of their next step!

Garden Teepee

Inside our garden we plan on creating on eof these and this is where the inspiration came from. I think BP will love this. A place of her own... to hide and play. It could also be a nice shady spot for BB.