There’s some action on The Farm.

Everyday feels like Christmas as I head out to the garden to see what’s new. I never really know what I’m going to find, sure for a while it was eaten plants, but now stuff is actually starting to take off.

We have what will someday be the peppers for my salsa! For the longest time they were just little buds and I didn’t think they’d ever grow. Then one day I went out there and there they were, a few teeny tiny little peppers. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

There’s also some inaction on The Farm.

We have two cherry tomato plants and they both have a TON of tomatoes on them but none of them are turning red. There are a lot that are the right size but they’re all still so green. What am I doing wrong?

We had this problem last year with our regular tomatoes, they were ready to come off the plant but they weren’t red. We did some research and learned that if you take them off the plant and put them it a paper bag they would turn. It worked.

I’m ready to start enjoying these bad boys, why aren’t they ready yet? I know, totally impatient.

Have you been enjoying any of the goodies from your garden yet? Is anything struggling to grow?

Last time I told you about one the new things we’re doing on the farm this year with the composting.

What else is going on at The Farm?

First we’ve expanded the entire thing to about double what it was last year. Instead of the raised mounds we had, Bill has built us some great boxes to plant our crops in, there’s eight of them. We’ll go into what we’re planting later. Next we’ve built a much sturdier fence. Last year it was just a few posts with the deer netting stapled to them. This year we have a beautiful split rail fence that really makes the backyard look amazing. We’re still using the deer netting on the fence since those guys are serious about eating my plants.

What are we growing?

Tomatoes already have flowers

Last year we grew peas, cucumbers, eggplant and better boy tomatoes. Since we had so much success with that, we’ve added cherry tomatoes, three different types of peppers, carrots and potatoes to our list of crops.

Peas Please

This year we also have a table that was built using leftover pieces of the fence to put potted plants on. We have chives, parsley, basil, cilantro and a strawberry plant on our table.

Pest control:

We have the deer fence to keep the animals out of the garden. Along the bottom of the fence we added wood boards to keep creatures from going under the fence. What are we doing to protect our crops from the things that the fence can’t keep out?

Organic pesticide? We’ll see about that.

We’ve got Ladybugs. I have to say that I had no clue about any of this and I am extremely skeptical of the whole idea. So evidently by releasing the ladybugs in the garden (at night so they don’t just fly away) they will eat all the bad bugs and leave the plants alone. I’ll let you know how the whole ladybug thing turns out later.

Anyone have any experience with the ladybugs in the garden? I never even knew you could buy a box of bugs to set free in the garden.

The Mommyland Farm is complete, all we need now are some tasty veggies! Stay tuned for more from the farm.