This year I decided that I was going to tackle the ritual of gardening. I got Jeremy to till me a huge plot or whatever. Then I decided that I would keep it simple and just do sweet corn, watermelon, zuchinni, and tomatoes. I did two kinds of tomatoes though-cherry and big boy. I guess big boys are big. Little did I know that just the "simple" act of planting the garden was going to nearly kill me! I almost quit so many times. This was on Memorial Day and I raked and hoed and dug and planted ALL DAY LONG! I was dripping in sweat and nearly passed out. Also I had to take a small trip out to my mother's house to get something to cover my hands with. did anybody know that there were spiders that live in the ground?!?!? I heard of those really big dangerous ones in Africa that dig tunnels and poison their prey. I thought for sure I was going to be attacked. also, the worms were a bit much. Once I got gloves, and had the plot somewhat suitable to be planted in, I wanted to quit. I kept doing that praying aloud thing that my mom always does and has passed on to me: Anywho, finally I got all the crap planted and went inside and I was burnt and tired and dead.
So since then, after I had worked so hard to get rid of the grass and make this plot just super for my little plants to grow in, the stupid grass grew back in full force!!! Curse it! Luckily, I have a really cool sister(Vicki) who came over this morning with her tiller and we re-did the whole thing!!! We moved all my plants around because I didn't really have things in rows even. It all looks so good now that I feel energized and want to garden like crazy now! Once we moved everything around I ended up with more space so, I planed a row of some kind of beans. Beats me what they are but, I'm going to grow them!
I have to take a pic once my camera charges. OOOH! I should have taken a before pic! Dang it! anyway, there are lots of things developing around the kelley household that I will blog about later because it smells like lunch is about done.
8 comments:
I love gardening! I just started with a small plot last year, and then really expanded this year.
I planted three kinds of tomatoes this year, plus a little corn, squash, some romaine type of lettuce, and some strawberries (I hope to have more strawberries next year). Did you know strawberries come back every year? I was so excited when I stumbled on to that!
How hard is watermelon? I want to try that along with canteloupe. Any watermelon secrets you want to pass on?
Are you sure there not called better boy tomatoes? I have one of those plants, plus six early girl, and several rutgers tomatoes.
Are any of your tomatoes making fruit yet?
yep. My cherry tomatoes have got little green tomatoes on them! But the other tomatoes aren't yet. My sister heard that there is some bee shortage or something and that's why people's tomatoes aren't doing so hot. Beats me.
Last year the kids were eating watermelon on the front porch in May and some of the seeds popped up in my flower bed that has rocks for the ground cover! I didn't really take care of them but, they grew all the same. so I thought it would be easy. But, I planted burpee watermelon this year and they have sprouted but, the birds keep picking at them. they are very small. I hope they do better. They need tons of water. Also, the watermelon that grew last year in my flower bed popped up again this year so I guess it comes back every year too! Who knew?
I was so mad at myself that I forgot to get strawberries! I really wanted them!
OOOHHO! and I also found out that I have two apple trees in my yard! They didn't grow anyhting last year because we had a late frost but this year, they are growing!!!! I am so excited!
My brother does the square foot gardening, I think I will try that next year. It seems alot more efficient and productive.
Square foot gardening? You'll have to tell me about that. I'm definitely going to try watermelon if they come back every year! Not this year, though.
I have two new apple trees I planted last year, but they did not flower this year. I have no idea why.
Bee shortage? I go to this blog where this lady grows everything on her little farm, and her husband and her just started doing beekeeping too! I think I am far to chicken for that. I got the link from Brad Carter's home page. Here's the link for her blog if you wanted to spy.
http://fieldoftansy.blogspot.com/
I also got to some other cool growing, farming, gardening blogs from her blog.
I had a garden one yr. when I was pregnant, I mean real pregnant. It just seemed unatural the way my stomach would hang when trying to weed. I always had one arm trying to hold the stomach up. So, I mostly did everything with the other hand.
Speaking of gardening, u should see my Dad's garden. It's as crazy as he is. It is bigger than- our house! Someone needs to tell him he's not feeding all 17 of his kids anymore. :) Cori
Ok, so I screwed up. But, look what I did, I have a name and picture now!
yay! Now you just need to start a blog Cori! What does he do with all of his spoils? Big canning sessions? My mother is the same way. Last year she had like 30 pepper plants or something and she doesn't even like them!!! I couldn't keep up with a garden the size of hers!!
i'll throw in my ten cents here. i don't know a whole lot about gardening, even though my family has always kept a garden and fruit trees. apple trees need to mature for 3-5 years before they fruit, and then they do something called "masting", which means that they only fruit every other year. when they do fruit though, look out! it's comes by the ton! my mom always spends a week on the on years peeling and cutting them up, mixing in sugar and cinnamon, then she puts them in big freezer bags and freezes them. fresh apple pie all year round!! she only does it with about half the fruit though, the other half we just eat. cause they are gooo-ood.
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