I haven't blogged about the garden?!?!

It was only as I mentioned the garden in passing in the previous entry that I realized I haven't officially blogged about our garden. In my blogging "absence," I composed so many mental blog entries that I've sorta lost track of which ones actually made it to the keyboard and out to cyber reality...

So, the garden...We planted in early April, and so far, so good. Currently, we are growing:

--french radishes (already eating those, yummy!)

--carrots

--melon (don't know what kind, it was a shared seed from a friend)

--two kinds of squash (again, don't know what kinds)

--corn

--several different kinds of tomatoes (started by a friend from seed, he gave me the plants when they were pretty small)

--bell peppers

--pumpkin

--yellow onions

--green onions

Also, sunflowers, morning glories, hollyhocks, chocolate flower, indian peace pipe, shasta daisies and marigolds have all been started from seeds. :) Everything is coming up and doing okay so far. I state it like that because sometimes, our summer heat comes on so suddenly, my seed starts have just shrivelled in the past.

In terms of our existing "food" plants, our peach tree has lots of fruit, and our apple tree is actually alive (which I didn't expect it to be). Our strawberry plants (which are practically evergreen here) are producing slowly but steadily (think about 5 berries a week). I had currant berries off the currant bush I transplanted from my grandma's house last fall. I didn't do anything with those (just let the birds have them). The same will go for the heavy load of crab apples coming along from that tree (also a transplant from my grandma's house).

I was worried that keeping up with the weeds would be miserable work. So far though, it hasn't been too daunting. And, I have the extra incentive of wanting to give the chickens fresh vegetation, so I almost welcome the weed pulling knowing that the chickens really love their greens. They are officially penned up for the summer (so as to spare the garden), and I do feel a bit guilty that they aren't allowed their free-ranging pleasure currently. It's my plan though to let them roam again, come late fall. Until then, I'm trying to be very mindful about supplementing their diet with weeds, bugs we gather, as well as our kitchen scraps which they make mighty fast work of.

When I rushed out a moment ago, to photograph the garden, the kids, of course, wanted to know what I was doing. When I told them, they said "well, you have to show everyone our pool." So, they very obligingly dove in. ;) (Ainslie is currently napping, or I'm sure she would have been quickly wet as well.)