We bought all of our plants last weekend. Thankfully, we didn't have enough time to put them in the ground just before a huge storm and a frost warning. Instead, they spent the night snuggled up against our house, away from the hail and the frost. Today, we're going to get them in the ground. Here's what's going in today.

2 elderberry bushes
8 Better Boy tomatoes
2 heirloom tomatoes ("Mountain Pride" and "Yellow Pear")
3 cherry tomatoes
4 bell peppers
spinach
leeks
rattlesnake pole beans: three 18-foot rows. (we like green beans)
kale
straight neck squash
spaghetti squash
French breakfast radishes
watermelon "Congo"
cucumber
beets "bull's blood"
okra- not Clemson Spineless. Instead, a lighter-colored variety that doesn't get tough as it gets larger. I have no idea what the name is.
burgundy okra, because it makes pink water when you pickle it!
herbs- cilantro, rosemary, basil, borage

New Daddy also wanted to grow strawberries in a topsy-turvy container, so one of those is hanging from the kids swing set. Berries are already coming out on it!

Time to rev 'er up

Can you believe that I still have one tomato from our garden still ripening on my kitchen counter? We had a bumper crop of green tomatoes before our late freeze last year, and I'm just now finishing them up. We still have a decent supply of okra and kale in the chest freezer, and I still have two jars of homemade marinara sauce in the pantry.

There's nothing more wonderful than an early Spring in the South. Two weeks ago, New Daddy tilled our 18' x 40' plot. The following week, we started implementing our new weed control plan, based on Debi Pearl's garden instructions in this video. We made two trips to Walmart to get cardboard boxes and another trip to the feed store for hay to hold the boxes down. We had a pretty wild thunderstorm this week, and the boxes stayed put. Yessss!

I think this year's weed control system will be far more effective than the nasty weed "fabric" that we laid down in gapped rows last year. The weeds took over the gaps, and I lost the battle.

In other news, Precious has asked for her own garden plot. Also, I'm looking forward to growing an heirloom variety of okra that doesn't toughen as it grows. Not Clemson spineless, I tell you!

Thus the cycle restarts...

Look what we're bringing in!

We got home from vacation last week. Yesterday, Precious and I picked twenty ripe tomatoes, that didn't include the ten green ones that I had bagged with apples to ripen before we left. And that's not to mention all of the yellow squash, spaghetti squash, acorn squash and green beans we've been getting. My CSA is my garden this year, and it's wonderful.

Time to can some spaghetti sauce!

The mystery squash demystified

I mentioned a huge, volunteer squash right in the middle of the garden. I went to check on it and noticed a 10-inch long squash growing on the ground. Thinking it was already too large to enjoy, I picked it.

I took it inside and sliced it open. It looked a little like it had long strands, but I wasn't sure. I baked it for an hour. After an hour, it wasn't quite tender, so I put it in for another thirty minutes. Finally, we were able to eat it. As I scooped the flesh out, I realized that my suspicion was correct. We have a volunteer spaghetti squash! And even though it was a little immature, it was still delicious tossed with butter, salt and pepper.

I'll let the other one that's started on the plant fully mature before we pick it. We absolutely love to make spaghetti with spaghetti squash, so this discovery is pretty exciting!

Harvesting already!

I am so pleased with our garden this year! I just harvested our second "mess" of radishes. Now I know why we planted so much; we love them! I braise them in butter, using Mark Bittman's recipe on p. 601 of HTCE.

The corn isn't coming up as vigorously as I'm used to. I think I should have planted the seeds deeper. Squashes are thriving. I'm cutting kale tomorrow. I had to check my blog's planting list to make sure that actually was what we'd planted in that spot that was doing so well.

The main thing that I need to do is to hoe weeds and cover the rest of the soil with weed fabric. I also need to get supports around the tomatoes very soon.

Get "er" done planting

Well, after last night's planting, we were "invigorated." After tonight's planting, which mostly took place in the dark, I was "pooped." I lay on the couch for about twenty minutes, maybe dozed, while New Daddy read to the kids and got them to bed. Finally, I got some water. Then, I slowly stood up. And then, I was able to finish my kitchen work. And now, I am able to blog, heheh.

Since it was dark, we used clip-on LEDs attached to our baseball caps. And, by the light of those, we planted-- scratch head... okay, here it is:

9 Marglobe tomato plants (heirloom)

8 Better Boy tomatoes (hybrid, of course)

2 cherry tomato plants (hybrid)

9 watermelon plants

And that was it! It only took about thirty minutes, but most of my time was spent with the trowel in my poorly-exercised right hand. And some of tonight's dirt wasn't nearly as well-tilled as last night's dirt. New Daddy wanted to wait until tomorrow, but I knew if we let the flats sit, the likelihood of the plants never getting planted was pretty large. Plus that, tomorrow is not a good planting day, according to the moon. So, we pressed through and got it done.

I also meant to mention that we have a few compost-volunteers that look like winter squash of some sort. They popped up at the back of the garden, in between the sweet potatoes and the newly-planted watermelons. It will be fun to see what those turn into!

Since Precious and Bubby were outside with us, they got to put a few watermelon plants into the ground. Precious also helped out with her flashlight. They really enjoyed having a part in the planting.

And this not-so-garden-ish gal is off to bed.

Planting II

I was out of squash seeds when we last planted, so we couldn't completely carry out the "three sisters" method of corn-beans-squash. But, New Daddy went out and bought two containers of straight-necked squash, and tonight, we put them in between the rows of corn. I'm finding a lot of rotten corn kernels, and I'm wondering if we didn't plant them deeply enough.

New Daddy also bought a container of sweet potatoes and a couple of grape plants. We put in the sweet potatoes at the back of the garden, near the tomato plants that New Daddy is going to buy tomorrow. It will be the last good planting day for a while, and we're going to use it. New Daddy will till later for the grapes. We're going to put them in between the blueberry bushes at the back of our property and the garden plot, which is pretty close to the back.

It was amazing, yet again, at how much more quickly the planting went with me digging holes in a well-tilled garden, and with New Daddy putting the plants in behind me. I really, really enjoy working in the garden with him. We both came in feeling invigorated by the cool air, passing storms, and the beautiful sunset. Yay for yardwork! I think I can do this, as long as I can work alongside New Daddy.