5-31-09 Mowing-Planting Strawberry Seeds

This is Kate's Garden.

It's named after the person who made it possible.

My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.

~God Bless This Garden~

Jessica getting another raised bed ready to plant Strawberry seeds in. Yes, you heard right. Strawberry seeds. :) Years ago, on the farm, I had 2 acres of "pick your own" strawberries. Of course, I planted strawberry plants, not seeds. :)

Here she's planting the Strawberry seeds. We'll see what happens. By the way, you may leave any questions or comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the end of each post. :)

James and Jessica, my son and daughter, lifting the new mower from the van.

James mowing. It's 93 degrees.

A view of the garden.

Here you can see a couple of the beds that I packed grass clipping into.

Another view of the garden.

James mowing.

New beds of Lettuce and Carrots.

Another view of new beds.

5-29-09 We've Got a Lawnmower!

We were in dire need of a lawnmower so finally my son, James and I decided to go halves on a rear bagger. Annette just called and she has it in the van. :) James will mow tomorrow. Yes!! Then I can start packing lawn clippings in the garden beds! That makes me very happy! :) I went over earlier and watered. The lettuce is coming up. Carrots are coming up like crazy. Everything is looking sooo good. :)

5-28-09 Principles Of Home Canning

Here's a PDF file about home canning:

http://www.lit4ever.org/pdf/USDA_canning.all.pdf

5-27-09 Triple Potato Bed-Adding Soil-Sevin

This is Kate's Garden.
It's named after the person who made it possible.
My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.
~God Bless This Garden~

James, Annette and Miss Becky, added the 3rd bed to the potatoes, making it a triple bed. James added more soil and sprinkled with a little Sevin to discourage bugs.

Engle's delivered another 30 bags of soil today so Annette is topping off this bed with some more soil as it had settled so much after all the hard rain. James dusted all the plants with a little Sevin. Tomorrow is supposed to be about 80 with sunshine so will get a lot done then. It's still pretty wet today. :)

5-26-09 Rain

No getting in the garden today! We've had 4 inches of rain since Saturday!! Of course, the garden loves it. :)

5-26-09 Kate's Garden Needs

Kate's Garden is in need of a lawnmower with a grass catcher so we can use the clippings for mulch in the garden beds. The one we were using broke down. We also need tons of canning jars. Anyone who would like to donate towards these things, will be very much appreciated.

Suzanne

5-25-09 Herbs-Potatoes-Green Beans

This is Kate's Garden.

It's named after the person who made it possible.

My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.

~God Bless This Garden~

Planting the herb bed. Sweet Basil, Dill, Sage, and Lavender. That's all they had so will go to the other nursery tomorrow for more herbs. :)

One of her watermelons is up!! Woo Hoo!!!!

Sweet Basil.

Broccoli is looking good.

Pretty little tomato...

Look at the size of the bell pepper already!!

Oh my gosh!! Look at the potatoes today!! I think tomorrow we should add another bed on top and more soil to make it a triple decker.

The green beans are coming up like crazy. Carrots have started to germinate, too.

5-24-09 Me-Day Off

This is Kate's Garden.
It's named after the person who made it possible.
My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.
~God Bless This Garden~

Jessica and I went to the garden for a little while today. She dug the sod out a ways from the fruit trees and filled in the low spots with soil. It's a holiday and everyone else is off doing something with family. We bought some herbs today and will plant an herb bed probably on Wednesday. It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow. :)

5-23-09 Water-Lettuce-Beds-Sweet Potatoes

This is Kate's Garden.

It's named after the person who made it possible.

My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.

~God Bless This Garden~

Jessica with the new bed of lettuce. It's Black-Seeded Simpson.

Here's that sweet little apple blossom. :)

Jessica digging the hole bigger so Dave can fit in it to work on the pipe. Not bad for a girl with a stitched up finger. She gets the stitches out Tuesday. You can see my mobility scooter in the background.

Annette's turn to do more digging.

Way to go, Annette!

Dave in the hole with the pipe cutter.

Dave sanding a piece of copper pipe.

Testing to see if it works.

Jessica and Dave. We've got water!!

Filling the hole back up.

Jessica building more beds.

Miss Becky with a handful of asparagus.

Building his second bed.

Annette hard at work.

Building her first bed.

Triple deep bed with the new sweet potato slips just planted.

A new bed of lettuce and 2 more beds of carrots.

A Storm was coming in so we headed home after watering everything. We no sooner got home and it started pouring rain. :) Now that we have a water hydrant. :) I think there are 35 beds now.

More beds to get planted tomorrow.

The end of another wonderful day in Kate's Garden.

5-22-09 Busy Day Tomorrow - Whew!

Boy! Tomorrow is going to be busy. There are 43 bags of soil sitting in the gardsn to use, more boards are being delivered tomorrow. Tons of seeds and plants to get planted, grass to be mowed and edged, etc. Jakki is home for the weekend. She will plant her own garden bed too. The grape vines are leafing out. There are baby tomatoes and peppers already. Oh, forgot... lots of sweet potatoes to get planted, too. Also must get the water faucet put in. Whew!!

5-21-09 Beans & Melons up

The soil didn't get delivered early enough today so we only spent a few minutes at the garden. We did get quite a few more tomatoes and peppers planted. Some of the green beans, watermelons and cantaloupes are up. I didn't take pics but will tomorrrow or Saturday.

5-19-09 Kids-Carrots-Watermelons

This is Kate's Garden.
It's named after the person who made it possible.
My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.
~God Bless This Garden~

Here's the box he built all by himself. He wanted to plant carrots in it so that's what he did this evening.

Way to go! Looks good!! (I think he planted enough carrot seeds for the entire state of Kansas) :)

She wanted to plant watermelons, so that's what she did this evening.

Gotta keep them moist so the seeds can germinate. Looks great!!

5-18-09 Planting Seeds & Sets

Here are a few notes on planting seeds in the raised garden beds:

It takes 4 small bags of Miracle-Gro soil per raised garden bed.

Green Beans ~~ Add 3 bags of the soil to the bed and smooth the soil out some. Sprinkle handsful of bean seeds over the surface of the soil. You can get them pretty close together in raised beds. Add 1 bag of soil over the seeds, smooth and tamp down the soil a little. Water well and try to keep a little moist. Any beans that come up too close together can be thinned out later. I plant only Top Crop green beans. They are the best without a doubt.

Carrots ~~ Add 3 1/2 bags of soil to the bed. Smooth and pat down the soil. Taking pinches of carrot seeds between your fingers, sprinkle fairly evenly over the surface of the soil. Crumble the remaining 1/2 bag of soil evenly over the seeds. Tamp down fairly firmly and water well using light mist. Keep moist. As the baby carrot come up you can harvest some of the babies to leave room for the others to get big. I will only use Red-Cored Chatenay carrots.

Watermelons - Cantaloupes - Squash ~~ These can all be planted just like the green beans. Keep moist. I used Black Diamond watermelons, Hales Best cantaloupes, and Hubbard winter squash.

Onion Sets ~~ When you plant onion sets, use all 4 bags of soil in the garden bed. smooth out and tamp down slightly. Push each little set (pointy end up) down into the soil so about half of the set remains above the soil line. If you bury them deeper you won't get the wonderful big onions you were dreaming of. Water and keep moist.

Potatoes ~~ I prefer Kennebec Potatoes over any other variety. Lay your seed potatoes near a sunny window until they have nice green sprouts on them before planting. I used a double-high raised bed and laid the seed potatoes directly on the loosened soil of the bottom of the bed. Then filled the double-high bed with soil. This should give plenty of grow room for the potatoes. You could make it triple-high if you so desire.

5-17-09 Beds-Mowing-Woods

This is Kate's Garden.

It's named after the person who made it possible.

My name is Suzanne. This will be a record of the garden to feed and bless many. We hope to take you through the entire process of planting, canning, and drying fruit and veggies.

~God Bless This Garden~

Starting to build some more garden beds.

The potatoes are doing sooo well.

James is digging more, still looking for the copper water pipe.

An 8 year olds first time building beds.

Miss Becky using my favorite tool, a hula hoe.

Wow! He finished his very first garden bed! Good job!! He wants to plant carrots in it.

Here's a shot in the woods behind the garden. This is part of the garden property.

Here's another shot of the woods. Beautiful!!

Getting some of the new beds lined up.

David mowing the unfenced portion of the garden lot. It's looking good.

James still looking for the copper pipe. :)

I think they may have found the pipe.

An 8 year olds first open work blister. :) Ouch!

This is looking good.

James mowing in the fenced section of the garden lot.

Another shot of the potatoes. Sweet potatoes will get planted this next week.

James mowing. Annette watering.

End of the day. Beautiful. :) There are 29 beds now.