We spent all of last Sunday (over 10 hours!) as a family, planting the garden. Yes, it is a bit late to be planting seeds (Step 5) but we have made great progress. The seeds that went into the ground were green beans, okra and carrots. We have 4 rows of green beans, at 50 feet each and 5 rows of okra and 2 rows of carrots. It has not rained much in the past week and so Step 6 is that we (Josh really) have been actively watering with the tripod sprinklers.

our 3 little gardeners taking an ice cream break

In addition to the seeds, we planted 20 tomato plants, 10 cherry and 10 of other varieties including Big Beef, Yellow tomatoes and Supersonic. We planted many varieties of peppers, 67 individual plants in total ranging from sweet to hot and include peppers such as hot banana, tobasco, jalapeno to purple peppers, sweet red, green bell and even sweet yellow. Josh also found habanero, cayenne, and finally the Carolina Reaper which the boys aren’t even allowed to touch because it is the hottest of them all. My in-laws came and joined in on the fun to help us plant and water as well. Alongside the peppers are 2 rows of strawberries. To be honest, they are not looking so great at this point but we hope they get plenty of water and liven up. Josh learned that we should pick off all berries from the original plants that we planted into the ground so that the strawberry plant can concentrate on growing rather than producing berries. Once it grows large enough, then it can produce the berries again. So fascinating.

In the soil beds, which are large mounds that Josh created using his tractor to push up, we planted one area in the back east corner of just pumpkin, melons and watermelon. These will take up a lot of room eventually and so they are in an area of the garden to themselves. And in the back row, another raised bed, are our squash, zucchini, cucumbers and I am trying broccolini and cabbage although I know it is late for these guys. The arugula are in pots near the house since it is also too hot for this lettuce too.

So as I mentioned, we spent the week watering. It is so much fun to end the evenings together as a family by the garden, watching the sprinklers go and the sun set at the same time. We even set up some picnic tables alongside our garden. Step 7, the fence is now up and will keep away any bunnies, deer or any other critters who want to eat our precious crops.

So last night, just 6 nights after we planted seeds, we found our first few little sprouts. How exciting for all of us!

Return to Home Page