So, one thing about this whole homestead plan… The reason our plans are so squishy and undefined: we know next-to-nothing about all this homesteady-type-stuff. There, I said it. I’m a little afraid I’ll be lambasted as naive or fickle or whatnot (right when somebody actually reads this stuff!), just as we’re all a little afraid to have our dreams criticized. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read everything I can get my hands on. I know how I want to build my chicken house and what I think I can reasonably grow in my relatively cool climate. But my hands-on experience amounts to a few days helping out around a friend’s ranch. And hands-on experience is where it’s at. I won’t claim to know how to do anything until I’ve actually done it.
All that is a long way to say that this year I planted my first vegetable garden. Also, that I’d love to get advice and tips if anything makes you wince.
We don’t have much room in our yard. The dogs have domain over the backyard and our town’s resident deer rule the front yard, so we can’t plant anything they’d like up there. So EZ built me 2 raised beds in an enclosure in the back yard. We filled them with soil bought in bulk from a local nursery. Since then, my biggest problem is the plants’ rampant growth.
The tomatoes are have grows right out the top of their 4′ cages. I think they love that red wall and all the heat it gives off for them.
They are heavy with tomatoes though and we just got the first ripe one. He was little, but tasty! (And I grew that lettuce, too! It just keeps on coming!)
The squash are busy trying to shade out the onions (and everything really). I took this picture yesterday and 3 of those squash will be ready to pick tomorrow!
The mint. Oy, the mint. How the hell will I ever use that much mint?! I’ll have to take up heavy Mint Julep and Mint Tea consumption. I’ll be perpetually drunk and full-bladdered.
Now for the problem children. I used to just love the snap beans. They thrust themselves out of the ground so enthusiastically. What lust for life! But they got bored with life pretty quickly, I guess, and now they look like this:
They are curly and short and not even pretending they’re going to produce anything. I’m going to just yank them out of the garden soon, I think. Any other suggestions?
Then there are the snap peas. They have grown tall and are beginning to produce pods, but they just look so damn sad. Now what do I do about them?
I keep meaning to get up to the areas of the National Forest that are frequented by horses to grab some leftover weed-free straw to use as mulch, but I haven’t yet. However, the weeds seem pretty easy to control if I just spend an extra two minutes pulling them in the morning when I water. I guess I wouldn’t have to water so much if I got some, though.
Anyhow, welcome to my teeny tiny garden. I adore it and love spending time there.
What a great enclosed garden you have there! It’s fun – no matter what the size is, isn’t it? I don’t know about where you are – but here, peas are a cool weather crop. Mine are done now – it’s too hot for them. I envy you that red tomato! I can’t wait to pop the first one in my mouth – but mine are still all green. I think it’s because we can’t plant before mid to late May.
I may have been a couple of weeks late getting the peas in the ground, but they’ve just grown sooo slowly the whole time after their initial burst of energy. They shot out of the ground and then sat there with the same two leaves for weeks. My husband thinks we got a batch of seeds with a virus, but who knows?
That was definitely the odd tomato. The rest are still green, but what a treat!
Thanks for stopping by my little blog! 🙂
oooh, I wanna come to your house and eat salad!
You’ll figure it out as you go along. Keep trying new things. One thing I would suggest, looking back over the years, is plant apple trees. I wish I had planted ours when we first moved here. They would have almost two decades of growth and be producing copious bushels of apples (and pears – we can grow those too). But I didn’t plant until two years ago which means I have some waiting to do… :}
Oh, PS, I LOVE the photo of the eagle fishing on your blog head!