Summer Garden 2014

 Originally, we had decided not to have a summer garden this year. Between a gopher problem and not having time or money to build raised garden beds to combat the gopher issue we put the idea on the back burner. 

Problem is, we love our summer gardens and the fresh veggies that result. And I'd been saving cardboard papertowel rolls and toilet paper rolls in anticipation of starting of garden with seeds this year. Plus, with all the raw veggies we get at the grocery store each week and all the land we have at our disposal now, it just didn't seem right. 

Looking at this now, compared to all the seeds and I think this may need to be larger! Good thing we have the room.

So during the break in the gloriously rainy weather we have been having (it's spring rain too, so it's not too cold), Cameron took the tractor out and turned some earth just out back to prep for a garden space. He'll just be at war with the gophers this year (which I think he actually gets pure enjoyment from). And then we headed to Home Depot to pick out our seeds. 

We came home with seeds for: 

• Red Onions
• Corn
• Canteloupe
• Sunflowers
• Bell Peppers
• Cucumber
• Jalepeno Peppers
• Zucchini
• Carrots
• Watermelon
• Sugar Peas
• Snap Peas
• Sweet Banana Peppers
• 3 varieties of tomatoes
• Radishes
• Yellow Squash

We also have some left over Pumpkin Seeds and plan to harvest Giant Pumpkin seeds from the Giant Pumpkin we brought home in October. Plus, there is more we plan to get for the pumpkin growing season, but I'll save that for another day. 

Time to get to seed-planting! We did pick up a few trays for seed planting as I have been saving the cardboard rolls like crazy, but we don't have enough stockpiled for all the seeds we bought!

I can hardly wait for the veggies to start rolling in. 

Garden Update

It was touch and go there for a while with a garden this year. Between the grasshopper infestation, an unexpected cool down and rain just as the tomatoes were blooming and some pesky rodents, we weren’t sure how things were going to fair. Of course, we planned on this being a test year anyhow.

But we’ve been reaping the rewards for a while now. Our zucchini and yellow squash crop has been amazing. As you can see from the picture above, the zucchini has been monstrous in size! And in the last few weeks the large tomatoes have been rolling in, as have the lemon cucumbers. I may need to try some canning this year to keep up with some of the crop, although I have been enjoying the tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinegar.

The cherry tomatoes have also been doing quite well and we have eggplants growing as we speak. The bell peppers and regular peppers are still a bit disappointing, but are yielding results – which is better than past years.

We also now know we need to rethink the design. Our tomato plants grew so much, that they dwarfed the corn. Most of our corn plants never got the sun they needed and have died. We did plant a few seeds a while ago but its not looking like we will get anything from them, as well. Next year we will probably plant the tomato plants around the yard.


Our corn planted from seed - still pretty small

Dead Corn - Thanks tomatoes!

One of the tomato plants - so big it toppled the metal stakes surrounding it!

More tomatoes on their way

We have also gotten some artichokes, but they have been too small to eat. And while we can see eggplant growing, they are still only softball size.

You can kind of make out one of the eggplants

~ Sarah

The Garden gets planted…Just in time for a storm

After Sunday’s gorgeous evening, Monday evening was a bit chilly. Cameron was participating in a golf tournament that afternoon for work and barely made it home in time to put London to bed, and after going over to Mike and Kelsey’s to see if they were keeping Molly, the idea of planting the garden that night was just not in the cards.


Not so Tuesday night. It was a similar evening to Sunday. So when London and I returned from day care and work, respectively, all three of us headed outside to work in the garden. Cameron still had some rototilling to complete so London and I wandered the yard and played with Tulley while we waited. Poor London walked right into Tulley doing donuts, first getting knocked down and then hit in the head by Tulley’s head – luckily the kid bounces back real quick and Tulley quickly realized what she did, showering London with kisses.

Once rototilling was completed, we set out placing all the plants where we think they will do best and then I got to planting, while Cameron dug holes for the artichoke plants elsewhere in the yard and tasked London with putting away all the empty plastic containers I was throwing over the small green fence we have around the garden to keep child and dogs out.

During this time, Cameron started playing around with the other side of the yard, where we had sun flowers unexpectedly grow last year. He declared that he thought we had a rat burrowing over there, then thought he saw it and started to chase it with the shovel. Turns out it was not a rat (thankfully) but two toads! Cameron felt pretty bad after unearthing their home, but luckily the toads were no worse for wear, and we left them alone from there. One even came up to the back door one night recently, sending Jake into a tizzy. Hilarious to see, trust me!

After I was done with the garden, I moved over to the artichokes, followed by Cameron watering everything while I put London to bed.

When I came downstairs, Cameron had started BBQing hamburgers for dinner. Instead of turning the TV on while we waited, we sat outside and enjoyed another beautiful spring evening and chatted. Unfortunately, the lovely weather was not to last – by Wednesday evening the rain had come in and by Thursday night we confirmed that we lost 2 of our 6 corn stalks. Oh well, hopefully we still have a lot of corn from the 4!

As soon as this weather does stabilize, I suspect we’ll be spending more and more time outside. London loves being out there – we just need to get her some outdoor toys to occupy her, though for now, she is quite content walking back and forth on the stone path out to the dog run and grapes.

In all we planted:

• 2 artichoke plants
• 4 corn stalks
• 4 tomato plants – Big Beef, Celebrity, Roma and Sweet Cherry
• 2 Green Bell Peppers
• 2 Red Bell Peppers
• 1 Green Cucumber
• 1 Lemon Cucumber
• 2 Eggplants
• 1 Green Zucchini
• 1 Yellow Squash
• 1 Jalapeno Pepper
• 1 Anaheim
• 1 Fresno Pepper (supposedly similar to the Jalapeno – we thought we had grabbed a Chili Rellano)
• 1 basil
• 1 Italian parsley

~ Sarah