COVID-19 Quarantine Day 49 - Garden Bed 2

Hello again!  I thought I would have been working on this blog a little earlier in the day, but things came up and people needed extra help and I've just barely had a moment to myself to sit down and write.  I didn't eat breakfast at all this morning, didn't get lunch lunch a little before 1pm, then I was scarfing it down to lead a call with a student at 1, our meeting went about 15 minutes long because he needed extra help, so I finished my lunch around 1:45, then went back to working with the kids on their lessons (which is what I was doing from 11, when I got done with my morning work and zoom calls, to 12:30, when I started working on the kids', Michael's, and my lunches).  It's been quite a day!  But now I'm free(ish) until about 6:30.  Then we have Lifegroup starting at 7:30, and Avery has a Facebook Live Video at 8.  Are you tired yet?  Thursday is our busy day here at home.  It's no wonder I like for the kids to get all of their work done before Friday so we can have an extra day off!  Phew!  I'm tired just recounting the day!  Alright, onto a recap of the garden boxes!!

Bed 1 - I failed to mention this in the last blog, which was about Bed 1, so I'll do it here.  Bed 1 was my original box and first attempt at a raised bed.  It was built in the Spring of 2018.  It did shockingly well, even in the first year I had it.  Much better that the clay soil had ever done.  It made me think that maybe I really could garden and maybe the problem had been my soil all along and not me.  It inspired and excited me and made me want another box the following year to plant even more plants.  Which brings us to....

Bed 2 - This bed was built in the Spring of 2019.  We also had a load of dirt brought in and rented a skidsteer (Which reminds me, Mama and Daddy, I need to pay you for the skidsteer rental this year!  What do I owe you?) to move the dirt from the front to the back.  We topped off Bed 1, because over the course of the previous year it had settled quite a bit.  Then we build and filled Bed 2.  And, of course, by we, I mean Michael and Daddy with the kids' "help".  My job came later with the mulch and planting.  2019 went just as well, if not better, than 2018 had!  I had more plants and more space and worked hard to fill every square into!  I learned about garden insects and pests.  I got a little more produce than I had the year before and, again, I was filled with hope and excitement about my garden.  I knew the next time we built a box, we would finish the whole garden.  It just didn't make sense to pay a dirt delivery fee and for a skidsteer rental every year and drag the whole thing out.  So very shortly after Bed 2 was build, I came up with a plan about how I wanted the rest of the garden to look.  You've seen most of how it's turned out now.  😁  There are still a couple things I'm thinking about changing/adding, but I've spent more than enough money this year, so those big ideas will have to wait.  😉  But, this history lesson is probably not the reason you got on here today.  Let's see the pictures!!!

Unfortunately for you, there's not much to see here in Bed 2 at the moment, but hopefully there will be soon.  Here's what you're looking at, from the front of the box, moving to the back fence:
Those 5 trenches you see are asparagus trenches.  Under the soil there are asparagus crowns, or root systems.  Asparagus is, by far, my favorite summer vegetable to grill!  I have 5 trenches in this box and 2 trenches in Bed 1.  This year I won't get any asparagus.  I have to just let them grow and go to seed.  Next year I'm allowed to harvest for 2 weeks only, and then let them grow and go to see again for the rest of the season.  Each year after that I'm allowed to harvest for 2 more weeks per year until I get to 6 weeks, which is the suggested, max harvest time per year.  We'll see how they do and then I'll decide how strictly I'll stick to those rules.  😉
Behind the asparagus trenches are three 1x1 plots with seeds planted.  Honestly, at the moment, without going out there or looking at my garden app, I don't even know what's planted out there.  I think there are herbs and marigolds.  I could be wrong.  There are a couple little sprouts coming up over there.  I'm resisting the urge to pull everything up.  I think some of what I'm seeing is weeds, but I'm not entirely sure, so I'm trying to leave them alone.  What I'm learning here is that if I don't know what something looks like when it's coming up, I need to start the seeds indoors, otherwise I could end up pulling the seedlings from the garden, thinking they're weeds.  Whoops!
Beyond the seeds there are three more 1x1 plots.  On the left is more seeds of some sort, in the center is the cage Michael built for my pea seedlings to be planted around, and on the left will be pepper seedlings.  I actually planted all of my pea and pepper seedlings yesterday, so hopefully they're settling in nicely.  I wanted to go ahead and get this blog written before I went out to check on things.  Here are a few pics from last night after they were planted.  I can't remember if I post pics of them last night or not.

Pea seedlings, had to kind of wind them through the cage a bit to encourage them to grow that direction.  You can only really see two of the three seedlings in this picture.  On the left is my oldest seedling.  The one in the front was planted a week or two after the first one and I tracked it as it grew an inch or two a day for a while.  It was crazy!  The third one is in the back.  It had barely popped out of the soil, but as it had spent all of it's grow time outdoors in a little pot upstairs on the deck, I thought it would be ok to go into the garden, even though it wasn't very big yet.  All 3 of my pea plants stayed in their biodegradable pots when they were planted into the garden.  I also poured my stinky fish fertilizer in each hole that the pots were planted in to give them an extra boost as they got settled in the garden.  I use this fish fertilizer on my plants every 3 weeks over the summer.  It seems to work really well!  I can't remember if I started using it last summer or two years ago, but my plants sure seem to love it.  Between the fertilizer and the nice soil my gardens have done so so well!  And each year I'm learning more to make them better!  Just wait until I tell you about nematodes!!!  Oh yeah!  Fun stuff!!  Back to Bed 2, focus, Jen...

Next to the pea seedlings I planted some pepper seedlings that I started inside.  Like the peas, they were planted in their biodegradable pots in a hole filled with fish fertilizer.  They aren't too big yet, but they've been outside and handling the weather well for several days, so I didn't see any reason not to stick them in the ground.  I have banana pepper seedlings as well as some multicolored bell pepper seedlings.  These all came from old seeds that I originally bought from Dollar Tree for 25 cents a package.  So I planted them thinking, well, what's the worst that can happen?  They don't come up and I've wasted a couple weeks waiting on them.  But hey, maybe they do come up and my 25 cents seeds get me way more than I bargained for!  Well, they came up!  We'll see how they do!  Fingers crossed!

Our last plants in Bed 2 are Avery's carrots.  We started planting carrots in the middle of February.  We waited 3 weeks between the planting of each row of carrots.  She has 4 rows planted right now.  As you can see in row 2, we planted a little extra.  That's because row 1 hadn't popped up yet and I was worried we weren't going to get anything.  We evened things out again by row 3.  Row 4 is just starting to sprout (they were planted on April 13th).  We'll see how well we spaced them as they continue to come up.  If the carrots go well and Avery wants to try them again next year, I might try using the seed tape next year.  This is our first year with a lot of new plants, so we'll see how things go, learn, and adjust for next year.  😊

So that's all I've got for this blog!  Thanks for reading and for understanding that even though we're stuck at home, life is kind of crazy still, lol!  I'm not sure how much more I'll post tonight, but I'll try to get some more in.  I have quite a queue of blogs I need to get to... Beds 3-5, Recent recipes, Connor's Birthday Surprise, a few pictures of the kids' recent schoolwork, stuff like that.  I'll get there eventually.  😉  But for now, the sun has moved enough that my feet are in the sun and heating up.  I could take them down off the footstool out here on the deck, and enjoy sitting for a while longer, or I could go check on my garden, which is fully shaded at this point in the day.  *facepalm*  So I think I'll head over there.  😊  More again later!  Love you and take care!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 49 - Garden Bed 1

This is the perfect timing for me to blog!  I have to be on a call with our school speech teacher who's working with a couple kiddos, but my video and mic are off.  So this is a good way to pass the time!  😊  Here are some more pictures from my garden!  ❤

Box 1 - From the back, we have strawberries plants and marigold seeds mixed together.  The marigolds are starting to sprout!  I have to be careful not to pull them with the weeds.  😳  You can't really see them, but there's head lettuce between the strawberries and romaine.  They don't look super awesome right now, but I hope they'll perk up.

This picture shows the lettuce a bit better.  I'm still hopeful.  The romaine is looking awesome, though!  

Back to box 1, after the romaine are a bunch of seeds.  There is a row of romaine seeds, a row of butter crunch seeds, a row of marigold seeds, and a row of chive seeds.  I think I have a few sprouts coming up in each row.  Lastly in that box I have 2 rows of asparagus.  They haven't really started popping through yet, but I'm hopeful for this week.  Then I'm going to start adding soil to the trenches.

Ok, my zoom is done now, so I'm going to comment on some student work online and then help the kids with their schoolwork.  I'll post some more about the other 4 beds later.  Here are a few pictures of the strawberries because most of them look pretty good and they're in this bed.  😉

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 48 - Garden - Tonight's New Plants

Ok, I learned my lesson with the flower bed, no putting together long, drawn out posts and then having the app crash on me.  Stick to the basics or leave lots of pictures out.  I think I've said a lot of what I need to say.  I'll add some captions to most pics and leave it there.  😉  Enjoy!

I got 6 new plants yesterday.  I planted them tonight.  One was okra.

My butternut squash plant did well last year, although I started it much later in the summer.  I bought another plant yesterday.  I hope it does even better this year, starting it earlier.  We'll see!

Also got a yellow squash plant.  Mine haven't been coming up from seeds.  This way I end up with at least one of these plants.  Still crossing my fingers and hoping the couple of seeds I planted come up.  🤞

This zucchini plant I bought looks awesome!  We'll definitely have some zucchini from it this year!

This one looks piddly, but I think that's mostly because I just watered it and it hasn't perked up yet, but I planted it in the same bed as the other zucchini plant, but this one I grew from a seed, starting it inside several weeks ago.  I'm hoping it does well in the actual garden!  ❤

I've got basil seeds planted somewhere, but this one was a little further along.  I planted it near the tomatoes because they're supposed to be good for each other, but not right in the middle of the tomato row where I can't reach the basil.  Hopefully that helps this year. 

Chives are in the middle of my 4 peppers.  Again, I have some seeds planted elsewhere, but these ones were already started. 

3 pea seedlings are in the ground around the cage.  Still need some sort of cage or trellis for the row of peas in bed 3.  Possibly between the peas and green onions since the plants are leaning towards the east for sun. 

Last pic of today's planting, bell and banana pepper seedlings are in the beds!  Woohooo!!

Alright, that's all I'm going to temp fate on this post.  Fingers crossed is actually publishes.  🤞🤞🤞  More pics tomorrow!!  ❤  Night!!!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 48 - Flower Bed

Ugh.  I have tried this 3 times now.  Once the app crashed, once I got distracted, closed the screen, and eventually closed the program, and once my entire phone seemed to glitch.  Ugh.  So here we go again.  4th time's the charm, right?

Isn't it beautiful?!?!  I just love it!  25 bags of mulch.  It's been a few years since we mulched the back half, and a year or two since we've mulched the front.  It didn't look awful, but this looks so much better!  Here are a few before pictures as well...

Like I said during one of these iterations, it didn't look bad before, but it looks better and more sharp now.  More intentional and deliberate.  I love the new mulch!  It's just beautiful!  ❤

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 48

Good morning, folks!  Hope you're all well.  I got my work done for the morning and the kids are downstairs on a video call, so I thought I'd get on and say how things have been going around here the last couple days.  Yesterday I spent most of the day out and about and working on the garden and flower bed.  I went to Wal-Mart and bought 30 bags of mulch.  Turns out I could only fit 12 bags in my car.  *facepalm*  Before I went home, I went to Andover to the Kaw Valley in the parking lot behind Wendy's (which looks great, by the way!).  I got a couple herb plants (chives and basil).  I looked for more strawberries, but didn't see any more.  I guess they are a pretty early season plant.  Next, I went home and we unloaded the mulch, then I left to go get the rest of the mulch and some more plants.  On my way to Wal-Mart I called my mom and asked what side of the road plant places she recommended.  She said she'd join me while I went out to look for plants.  She hasn't been out to any of those places yet this year.  So instead of going out to find plants, I got the mulch (all 18 bags I had left to get), and went back home to unload, do my afternoon Zoom call, and wait for Mama to get to town.  I fit more mulch in my car after taking the car seats out and laying down the middle row.  While I was waiting for my Zoom call to start and Mama to get to town, I mulched the front flower bed.  It looks SO GOOD NOW!!!  I'll have to wait and post another blog with the pictures because I can't access them easily from the computer where I'm typing this.  It looks really nice!  After my Zoom call, Mama came over and we went out to look for new plants.  We went to Stutzman's, back to Wal-Mart (for another 20 bags of mulch), and to Lowe's.  I got a few more vegetable plants!  😀😀😀  I've got to stop buying plants now, because I'm going to be out of space with these last 3 squash plants I bought.  They take up a lot of space.  I probably shouldn't have gotten as many as I did, or possibly shouldn't have tried to start the squash from seeds and just got the plants from the get go, but what can I say, I was terribly anxious to get started on my garden a couple weeks ago and the zucchini and squash plants weren't available yet.  I had to do something in the mean time.  We'll see how everything does once it's planted....  After Mama and I got back to the house, I mulched the garden in the back.  I'm so glad that Michael helped me wheel all the mulch to the back of the house in the wheelbarrow.  I never ate lunch and by that point it was closer to dinner time.  With all the loading and unloading of the mulch, carrying bags around, and dumping and spreading mulch I was completely exhausted.  After my shower I think I laid in bed for a full hour or more and just drank water and rested.  Avery even made me a sandwich for dinner because I was just pooped.  Eventually I felt better and made it out to see the garden all mulched and evened out (Michael was going to rake it a little when I went in to take a shower).  It's beautiful!  Again, I'll have to post another blog with pictures.  It looks great!   We didn't add more mulch between beds 1 & 2 and 2 & 3 because there was still quite a bit of mulch left there from last year.  It's faded, but otherwise, still looks pretty good.  It doesn't look a whole lot different because the landscape fabric was already dark, but we started covering the landscape timbers so all of the walkways look the same.  It all looks really nice!  I'll have lots of pictures to post soon because lots of things have been growing.  I've also made a few new recipes the last couple of days, so be looking for that blog coming up too.  :)  That's all I've got for now!  Have a good one!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 46 - More Pictures

Last post of weekend pictures!  Enjoy!  Those kids are awful cute! 

Looks like Dayton is still taller in this pic, but not for much longer! 

I caught a couple fish too!  ❤

That's all the pics of this weekend!  I don't feel like a long rambling story, recapping the weekend.  Maybe later, maybe not at all.  It was good to see everyone.  ❤  I loved playing games all weekend.  I really like my new Dominion expansion and the kids really like SushiGo Party.  😊  My garden looked great when I got home too.  More later!  Bye!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 46 - More Weekend Pictures

Ok, that's all I want to put on here for this one.  I don't want the blog crashing on me.  One more blog coming!

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 46 - Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend at the farm!  It was wonderful being around family when we hadn't seen some in over a month.  Enjoy these pictures!  I'll have to make another post from a computer so I can access Michael's pictures too.  😊

Connor caught a fish all on his own while everyone else but him and Dayton were up at the house!  Then he refused to get close to it to take a picture.  🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

Connor was building with our Catan pieces while Sis, Mama, and I were playing the game.  🙂

Apparently this was all I took this weekend!  😱  (And that last one isn't even mine!)  I was too busy enjoying the family time.  🙂

I got to Michael's pictures on my phone after all!  Here are a few!  The kids finally talked Papa into taking them out on a boat ride!  ❤  I'll start another post so I make sure to get plenty of the pics posted.  😊