The garden has just been just eh this year.

The critters have gotten to the back two beds (peas and cucumbers) despite our best efforts and lots of repellent. It blows my mind how when we hardly had any kind of protection around the garden the animals left it alone. Now that it has all kinds of fencing around it we can’t keep them out. It’s been a frustrating couple of years on The Farm.

New to The Mommyland Farm this year are the strawberries. They have been tasty but we haven’t gotten too many, I think we’ve been averaging about one every other day. I’m hopeful that they’re the gift that keeps giving and we’ll get some more as the summer progresses. I don’t think I’ll be using my own strawberries for my strawberry shortcake any time soon.

Juicy strawberries.

We’ve gotten one green pepper so far and there are many more out there that just need to get a little bigger. The red and yellow peppers refuse to change color though. We had this problem last year, three different colors were planted but we only had green. They all tasted good though so I guess I shouldn’t complain. Anyone have luck with different colors of peppers?

The cherry tomatoes are doing really well. We’ve got more than Logan can eat coming off the vine. It’s nice to not have to buy them at the store for a few weeks.

The beefsteak tomatoes are OK so far. There are a lot of them on the vine but, much like last year, they’re not turning red. So far we’ve only had one red one but it was worth the wait. There’s just something about tomatoes fresh from the garden, they’re not always as pretty on the outside as their grocery store counterparts but they are gorgeous on the inside and tasty.

The other thing we’re waiting on is the carrots. We’ve tried them before but something always ate them before they had a chance to grow. This year they seem to be thriving and Cameron is really looking forward to eating one right out of the ground. Carrots are the only veggie he’ll eat and they have to be raw and he only eats them every once in a great while. I’m looking forward to sneaking them into my meatloaf. HEHEHE

This was our second year with the potatoes and while we didn’t get as many as we did last year we still got a respectable haul. I’ll be making some chips with some of them VERY soon. I guess I should share a few with my Mom too.

Our potatoes. That’s a little more than half a five gallon bucket.

I’ve had some questions as to how to grow the potatoes and honestly, they’re the easiest thing in our garden. We got the bulbs in the spring, cut them in half and planted them cut side down. All you really need to do is keep them watered. The bulb package said to pile more dirt on top of the plants as they started to grow but we never did that. When the plant looks like it’s about to die we pull them out of the ground and go hunting for potatoes.

Potato hunting.

The boys love searching for the potatoes, probably because it gives them an excuse to get dirty.

The herbs? Don’t even ask! The potted herbs blew away and are laying dead on the front porch. Second year of herb failure.

I’ve been hearing a lot of garden success stories this year, how is your garden doing? Do you have any tips for getting my tomatoes to turn red while still on the vine or how I can get my red and yellow peppers to stop being green?

Happy Gardening!

Since spring took it’s sweet old time getting here we were a little late with getting our crops in the ground. Everything has been in for a few weeks now and things are coming a long nicely.

I’m so excited to eat some fresh veggies right off the plants again this summer.

The Mommyland Farm

So what’s new?

This year we were able to use our compost to fill some of the beds. The stuff had a certain aroma that I wasn’t quite fond of but Bill assures me is really healthy.

We decided not to do eggplants this year since they never get big enough for humans to eat before the animals get to them. It’s fine with me, I’m not a big eggplant fan anyway.

Instead of the eggplants we are doing strawberries. Who doesn’t like strawberries?!?

We switched the potatoes and the carrots around mostly because the one bed had more soil than the other.

We have added an irrigation system! With the new system we hope to use less water and be more efficient with watering the plants. Each bed has two of the little sprinklers. Now instead of watering the entire area in and around the garden just the plants will get the water they need.

One of the irrigation heads

No new security measures have been taken except that we sprinkle what I call death around the entire garden to help keep the critters away. The stuff smells so God awful that it makes me gag but it’s supposed to deter the animals from coming around. To be honest, I think it’s only kind of working. The things in the back two beds (peas and cucumbers) are being attacked by the furry “friends”. Maybe it’s time to fix the hole that someone dug under the fence back there.

How’s it going?

Besides the aforementioned nibbling of the peas and cucumbers things are coming along nicely. The tomato plants are getting bigger by the day and the carrots that never made it last year are going strong.

We’ve got a few flowers here and there which of course is a sign of food to come.

This year’s Mommyland Farm will include: peas, cucumbers, strawberries, grape tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, red peppers, yellow peppers, green peppers, potatoes, and carrots.

Off The Farm we have set up a small, potted herb garden on the front porch. Last year the squirrels got to all my herbs and we had nothing. This year we have basil, cilantro, parsley, and oregano. 

Herbs

OK, now my tummy is growling just thinking about all the goodness we’re going to have this summer.

Do you have a garden? What will you be growing this summer?