Growing Challenge Check-In: Planting

My garden isn't small but I didn't have any room to plant corn. Our neighbor Jeff was kind enough to come by with his tractor and rototiller and make the above long strip of garden for me. It is between the pasture fence and the road. We had to put the fence far off the road to make room for snow in the winter but can still use the space all summer.

I planted 5 different kinds of corn the first day. I still had some room so in went 2 packets of sunflowers, hopefully to use in granola bars this fall. Well, there was still a ton of room left so I just kept planting. All the peas and beans went in. Then watermelon, zucchini, and squash. There is still room so I added eggplant seeds and may stick in some eggplant seedlings to fill it up. I'm trying to plant less valuable crops there since I wouldn't put it past some idiot to drive through it or pick from it. The tomatoes and other crops will stay in the main garden. Plus, now there is room in the main garden for pumpkins!!

Here's the complete running list, new additions in bold, the rest are updated.

Seedlings still under light (they really need to get outside but the weather is poor):
Amish Paste Tomatoes
Green Zebra Tomatoes
Waltham 29 Broccoli
Ping Tung Eggplant
Long Purple Eggplant

In the main garden:
Red pioneer potatoes- 10# - growing well, need straw
Red onions - 8-10" tall
Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas (hybrid) - 1 20' row - 8" tall
Asparagus - mostly gone to seed, some still coming up
Black seeded simpson lettuce - 1 20' row - up
Black seeded simpson lettuce - 1 20' row planted 4/27 - up
Sugar Ann snap pea - 1 20' row planted 4/27 - 4" tall
Victoria Rhubarb - approx. 25 seeds planted 4/27 - didn't come up, disappeared!
Amish Paste Tomato seedlings - 10 planted out 5/25 - 2 died, others holding on

In the long garden:
Country Gentleman sweet corn - 1 packet - planted 5/25
Golden Bantam 8-Row sweet corn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Carousel mini ornamental corn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Strawberry popcorn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Japanese White Hull-less popcorn - 1 pkt. - planted 5/25
Mammoth Grey sunflowers - 1 pkt. - planted 5/30
Buff Valentine (Contender) bush bean - 3 pkts. - planted 5/31
Sugar Ann snap peas - remainder of 1 pkt. - 5/31
Laxton's Progress 9 garden pea - 3 pkts. - 5/31
Tall Telephone garden pea - 1 pkt. - 5/31
Blacktail Mountain watermelon - 1 pkt. = 5 hills - 5/31
Butternut Roosa squash - partial pkt. = 2 hills - 5/31
Black Beauty zucchini - partial pkt. = 2 hills - 5/31
Ping Tung eggplant - partial pkt. = 2 hlls - 5/31

Around the farm:
Heritage Raspberry - 4 canes planted 4/26 - doing great
Strawberries - a few blossoms, only half dozen plants survived winter without mulch
Gooseberry and Currants - 2 of each - planted last year - huge w/ small berries forming!
2 Red Haven Peach trees - planted - all fruit trees are healthy and green
1 Harrow pear tree - planted last year - only tree with blossoms
1 Bartlett pear tree - planted
1 Montmorency Cherry tree - planted
1 Gala apple tree - planted
1 Golden Delicious apple tree - planted
4 blueberry bushes - planted last year - greening up
Mature apple trees - small apples forming!

Here's a pic I snapped from where I sat planting the endless patch.


Also, this is the broken hoe that I've repurposed to help me plant. It makes a great little tool to cut rows in the soil. Then I just drop the seeds in and pat over them with my hand.



I've enjoy reading many of your garden updates and how everyone's plant are flourishing. What's your favorite garden tool? How do you plant your seeds?

Sunday Stroll: Garden Update

I have been taking a stroll around my yard every morning and evening lately. There is a lot of activity to keep up with! All of these pictures are from the garden today. I thought I would combine the garden update and Sunday Stroll this week to keep things simple. Plus, I have a lot of other things to post about this coming week.

Potatoes are finally up! Yay!!

I have picked and picked, eaten and shared, and yet till - the asparagus is going to seed.

The first row of peas is really growing. The second row is up and about 1-2" tall.

My little bitty lettuce. This was one of the first things I planted. It is growing very slowly but I'm just glad it lived.

The onions have doing great all along.

The garlic is huge!

I saved the best for last. Check out the blossoms on our new pear tree! This is the one that I just planted a few weeks ago. The pear tree that I planted last year has a lot more leaves but no blossoms yet. I can see this little blossoming tree from my window.

See who else is strolling on Sunday over at Quiet Country House.

Gooseberries and Currants

I'll just make a quick update here before I have to leave. On Mother's Day I went with my Mom to a nursery and purchased about $120 worth of plants. Here is a breakdown of what I got:

2 Gooseberry bushes ($8 each)

2 Black Currant bushes ($8 each)

3 Red Heritage Raspberry bushes ($4.50 each)

2 Himrod Green Seedless Grapevines ($6.75 each)

1 Bartlett Pear tree ($22)

1 Harold Pear tree ($22)

1 Dozen Red Seed Potatoes ($1.83)

25 Earliglow Strawberries ($11)

25 Jewell Strawberries ($11)

So far I have only planted the Gooseberries and Black Currants. Both thrive in a colder, shader area and can stand up to a North wind so I planted them on the North end of our shop. I mulched them heavily and they seem to be doing well so far. I'm waiting to plant the pear trees until we pull a few stumps around the yard to make more room. Hopefully I can get everything else in this weekend! The plan is to use edible plants as much as possible thoroughout our landscaping. I just am not motivated to work on plants that I can't eat! I'll have more on this later...