Completed Trailer

Here are some pictures of the completed trailer...

Transformation of the trailer...

a section of the trailer with the rust sanded off

the trailer primed and painted with a new hitch our neighbor put on when he was doing some welding work for Johnny on the boat.


The trailer with the wheels replaced...all that is left is to do a little bit work to finish the trailer, and then he will start prepping the bottom of the boat.

Johnny's Boat

Here is a picture of Johnny's $35 special that he got last Fall. He has been able to start working on it, so Lord willing the transformation pictures will come quickly.

Our Garden in June

square foot garden update 2

Our garden has grown a lot this last week - we had lots of rain and warm nights.

• squash and cucumbers are getting big - now I have to figure out how to vine them.
• tomatoes have doubled in size again.
• tomatoes and peppers have flowers about to open
• my parsley all has some seeds sprouting
• I had to tie twine around all of my bush beans as they are getting tall and starting to fall over into other boxes (primarily only the tongue and fire but I did the rest as well)
• the pole green beans are growing fast and vining well
• both nasturtiums had flowers bloom
• my eggplant has a bud on it about to open
• my peppers have shown a lot of growth and gotten dark green
• my swiss chard has started to grow and I think I am going to harvest my lettuce before it gets too hot and then plant some more green beans or radishes.
• you can see our hanging tomatoes and pepper plant - the nasturtiums and basil have sprouted on top.
  

My apple tree has shown lots of new growth this week. I wish I had a picture of what it looked liked last week...

Our Square Foot Garden update

After and interesting March and April, my garden finally seems to be showing signs of growth (and we have gotten to eat some sugar snap peas.

In March I through that we were doing good when a lot of my seeds starting sprouting...and then we had a cold front around March 29th and April 6th where it went down to 32.

For the most part my seeds survived; I replaced a few, I made the choice to replace my tomato plants and some of my pepper plants. I wanted to make sure I had those.

In the middle of April the first pea flowers came and we got to eat a few of the sugar snap peas in our salads. Lord willing in the Fall we will have more of them.

My pole beans are starting to send out their tendrils, my basil is looking really good and growing well (even from seed), my chives have sprouted and another cilantro will sprout soon. My Eggplant looks like it is doing well.


My box of tomatoes, peppers, beans, morning glories, thyme, green onions, marigolds, nasturtium, parsley and basil.

My squash and cucumbers came up this week along with some of the beet seeds I planted with the beets that I had planted already. My lime balm is looking much better than it did and the nasturtium is continuing to grow, no flowers on it yet. My basil that I transplanted for some reason looks really poor in this box, but the seeds are popping up and looking good.

My tomatoes have gotten tall (I keep pruning the bottom branches to make it easier when I attempt to vine them. There are still pea flowers and peas forming, but I imagine the heat will be pretty bad soon, so I'll pull those in a few weeks and plant something else.


In this box I have tongue and fire, pinto beans and lima beans. I also have radishes, chamomile, cilantro, stevia and two bell pepper plants. I planted another box of green beans, dill, tongue and fire beans and chamomile.


Here is the box we had broccoli, onions spinach and swiss chard in. I pulled a lot of the broccoli (that never formed any heads). I am seeing if they will form heads in the Fall, based on research, there is a possibility. The broccoli has really shot up since the weather has been more consistent. There is Summer Savory, Montezuma red beans and a jalapeno plant in there.


This box has bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and two garden salsa plants. I have also planted Montezuma red beans (that you can see) and green beans. I planted some radishes that are starting to sprout, more Montezuma red, pinto and tongue and fire beans. I also have dill, oregano, swiss chard, parsely that I planted from seed and transplanted (which is not doing to well).

It feels like Spring...

so today we decided since it looks like the weather will be good another week to go ahead and plant our tomato and pepper plants. Lord willing nothing will happen to them...

We planted:

• 5 Early Girl and 5 Better Boy vining tomatoes
• 6 jalapeno peppers, and 1 garden salsa pepper
• 6 bell peppers and 1 fajita bell pepper
• An Eggplant
• Thyme
• Oregano

I planted some more seeds:

• 1 box of Green onion
• 2 more boxes of Swiss Chard (after finding this recipe for Hot Swiss Chard Artichoke Dip)
• 1 box of beets
• 1 box of radishes (where I will be planting cucumber in a few weeks)
• 1 box of Chamomile
• 2 boxes of Nasturtiums
• 1 box of Dill
• 1 box of Cilantro
  

Our Square Food Garden

Here is the garden...in progress. It had the retaining wall and the dirt in it. The dogs enjoyed it until we fenced it off...Here you can see the pole in the middle...one of these days it will be sanded and painted, and hopefully have morning glories growing up it.
A side view...

Here is the first box we planted. I planted 9 broccoli plants and two boxes of onion sets (one red, and one white).
Here is what the boxes look like with the slats on it. The trellis is still to come...Hopefully that will be done today.

Planting seeds for the first time...

Two years ago when Johnny and I first did a garden (or I guess, the first time I ever did, he has had experience with it before), we planted only plants (other than squash seeds).

We of course planted tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers and squash...nothing out of the ordinary. Last year we moved during planting season, so we were unable to try again, so this year I spent a lot of time researching and finding out a way we could have a productive gardening. I came across the Square Foot Gardening method by Mel and have read through his book at least twice, waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for the garden to be ready for me to start planting.

I'll be glad next year when I can start when it is time to plant and not have to wait for it to be done!

I planted radishes and carrots (8 of each) in one box, Swiss Chard, Lettuce (I am trying it from seed, praying it works!), Spinach and Snap Peas.

First planting...

I planted 9 broccoli plants. Tried starting them indoors from seed, but I had a lot of difficulty due to not being at home. Hopefully I can do better when I plant them in the Fall!

I planted a box (16) white/yellow onions. I had these in the garage since November and some had sprouts, others didn't. They shot up pretty quickly. It was exciting to see - as I have never grown onions before.

I planted a box of (16) red onions. These did not sprout as well, but I had just purchased the bulbs from the store, so that could be why.

We are praying each of the broccoli plants will turn into a head of broccoli. For only $3 for 9 of them, that would be a good deal...Lord willing, we will be blessed with some fresh broccoli.