Baby Food Garden 2014

I wasn’t sure my garden would get put in this year. And I wasn’t too worried if it didn’t – obviously I have way more important things to play with, like a little boy. :)

But since I’ve been making all of Chisum’s baby food, I thought it would be fun if I did get my garden in, to make it a “baby food garden”.

Chisum came with me and we went on a quick adventure to the greenhouse on Saturday and got cucumber, zucchini, acorn squash, summer squash plants and one small roma tomato since Ronny and I like to eat them. I also have carrot seeds and peas so I planned to put them in as well. It will be a smaller garden than year’s past (2011, 2012, & 2013), but that’s fine for this year.

There was some volunteer lettuce growing from last year, so Ronny replanted them in the corner and I threw in a few more lettuce seeds just for fun.
  

This is my first time trying acorn and summer squash – hopefully my little squash-lover will like them.
  

I loved having little helpers. ;)

July Garden

Oh, wait. I have a garden?

That’s kind of how I’ve been feeling about my garden. Thankfully, Ronny has been taking pretty good care of it. As I told him, “I’ll plant it, but no guarantees on harvesting it!”

I like to look at it from my kitchen window, but thinking about going out in the heat these days – no, thank you!

Anyways, it really has enjoyed our hot, humid weather. Remember this from June?

Well now it is this. Kind of out of control. I haven’t had luck with tomatoes before. Well now I apparently do and they are prolific! Ronny put the pallet in to keep the cucumbers from growing over everything else. Kinda redneck, but it works.

And remember the random spots for the pumpkins that we picked out?

Yes, well here they are now.

Ronny set up a fence for them to grow on, but it’s going to need to be reinforced soon with the weight of the growing pumpkins. There are probably a dozen growing so far!

The best part has been consuming what has grown. We’ve enjoyed some broccoli and lettuce so far, and are just starting to get red cherry tomatoes. Baby Pope likes these! I should have some cucumber ripening soon. It’s hard to say about the green peppers – the tomatoes have kind of over taken their area, so we’ll see if anything comes from them!

Garden 2013

I forgot to get pictures of my garden when I first planted it in May. But it has really been enjoying the rains and warmer days.

This year, I planted tomatoes (after not trying last year when they were sprayed by the lawn behind us the year before), but I moved them to the front of the garden box hoping that keeping them away from the fence would help.

I also planted green peppers, broccoli, cucumber and started carrots and lettuce from seed.

Last year, our vertical pumpkins experiment would have worked better if we didn’t have a drought. They just didn’t receive enough moisture in the tubs. So this year, we removed two bushes (they were taking over and I wanted my spirea bushes to have more space). I’ll eventually put something else in their spots, but decided to try putting two pumpkin plants in them to see what happens.

Of course, Hank always loves spending time in the yard with me – especially the shade. :)

My goal was to get the garden in, but I’m making no promises on how much of it will be harvested by the time Baby Pope gets here!

Emily in Olathe

Last weekend, Ronny and I got to visit Emily in Olathe! She now has a big girl job, big girl apartment, and just seems so grown-up. Waaahhh. But I’m so proud of her and it’s hard not to see her as the “little” sister when she is doing so many awesome things!

First, we got to visit KAT Nurseries where she works and she gave us a rockin’ tour on the Gator.




This was my favorite part – muddin’ in the shade tent!

Near KAT and where Em lives is this place that she’s always wanted to get RP’s picture by. :)

We also got a great dinner at Jack Stack BBQ.

Shopping was on my to-do list as she lives so close to Legends so Em picked up her new dishes that she ordered. We of course had to watch the AMAZING K-State football game against OU and got to spend some time with one of my best friends, Georgia, who lives very close to Em.

On Sunday, we checked out a new church with Em (which had an orchestra – so cool!) and saw some of Ronny’s family friends from Olsburg – small world!

Thanks again for hosting us, Em, and for the great weekend! We love you!

September Garden

I went into my backyard tonight wanting to conquer the garden. I was tired of looking at at the drying-up vines and overgrown broccoli that had changed from last month.

But I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.

I knew that there were a few carrots growing, but last year they turned out so puny that I didn’t have any great expectations for this year.

I was even more surprised when I pulled them out – they were nice and long!

My favorite carrot though seemed to be hugging it’s big brother.

Amongst the drying-up vines were even five cucumbers. There are also three pepper plants that have never come to fruition, but they were still pretty green and thriving, so I didn’t have it in me to pull them out or the cucumber vines. We’ll see what next month brings.

August Garden

I must admit, I’ve been neglecting my garden – but it must still love me because it has been producing some great cukes and zukes.

Hanky can attest – he really likes when I cut them up and “accidentally” drop some on the floor.

My sister, Emily, came for a weekend visit and she – the horticulture girl – gave my garden and bushes some love and discovered this little carrot growing. In a few more weeks I should be able to harvest the rest.

We also are officially a one-pumpkin family after our effort with the DIY Vertical Pumpkins. And a weeny pumpkin at that. At least  he turned orange, but Ronny was pretty disappointed. 

I was able to slice and freeze three of my zucchini’s and will look forward to lots of recipes this winter I can use them in.

Pumpkins, peppers and cukes

Even though we are very dry here, the garden is surviving, except I’ve given up on my lettuce and broccoli. For one, the broccoli gave me one good crop and didn’t produce much else afterwards – and Ronny thought it tasted funny. :) With the lettuce, I ate enough salads to make me sick of it, so I abandoned the last few weeks.

But my vertical pumpkins are doing just that. Going vertical.

And then horizontal again. These long vines are really stretching out – but as long as they stay on the rock, I’m ok with them. And do you see that in there?

We have our first pumpkin growing!

As far as the cucumbers – they are officially taking over the garden.

I’m loving my cucumber harvest, however, and have been taking them for snacks to work and am glad to have more growing.

Lastly, my peppers (that I started from seed) are growing pretty big! Hopefully they’ll produce some peppers before the first freeze.

Anyone else having good luck with their garden?