Skip to main content

Garden Challenge at The Homeschool Village

Written by Joy
6 Comments
Garden Challenge at The Homeschool Village

 

It is once again time to link up with The Homeschool Village’s Garden Challenge.  Growing up, we always had a garden.  It was fun times for me, as I loved watching plants grow and produce wonderful goodies we could eat.  I am so happy that I am now able to pass my love of gardening down to my children.

This year we had a lot planned and time has just gotten away from us.  While we haven’t planted everything that we had wanted to plant, I am thankful we still have a little bit of time to get some vegetables in the ground.  Some of our seedlings have grown, while I let others die by lack of water.

Our tomatoes will be planted this weekend.  I can’t wait to pick our first tomato!

I did manage to get the green bell peppers in a bucket.  However, they do need thinning out.  I need to get a couple of more buckets to put the others in.

Our broccoli came up beautifully.  Then we left on our trip and didn’t pick it when we should have.  By the time we made it back from Denver, it had flowered and was to late to salvage.  So we are going to chopped up the plants and turn in back in the soil, hoping it will rot and help fertilize the other plants.

I am most surprised by our asparagus.  I didn’t think it was going to come up and yet I have 2 that has survived!

Our sunflowers have grown nicely.  I also need to get these in the ground this weekend, too.

What has surprised us the most this year is our herbs!  They are growing like crazy!  My husband has already clipped them back once and dried the herbs out.  We have been using them to cook with, fresh and dried.  The food just seems to taste so much better with home grown herbs.

This is my daughter’s pineapple sage that she choose to grow last year.  We couldn’t believe that it came back up!  We thought it had died during the winter.  We never used it last year, but I have read that we can make some tea from it.  We plan on trying it out this year.

Our rosemary bush has also grown since last year.  I am thankful for a warm winter, because this bush never died back.  It stayed green all winter long. I love to use fresh rosemary when I back a while chicken.  I break off a couple of small pieces and stuff it in the chicken with a lemon or an orange.  It is delicious!

I haven’t put the strawberries in the ground yet and I haven’t planted any cucumbers, squash or okra.  That is on my to-do list this weekend.  Our flowers are also growing.  The roses are blooming and the morning glory, marigolds, daisies and zinnas are all coming up as well.

It seems like our garden has changed a little since I last checked in, but we are making progress with what we have planted.

How is your garden doing?  Have you picked any fruits or vegetables yet?  Be sure to link up with The Homeschool Village and tell us about it!  you just might win a gift!

 

2012, family, , ,

HSV Garden Link-Up #2

Written by Joy
5 Comments
HSV Garden Link-Up #2

It is time to for the second link-up for The Homeschool Village Garden Challenge link-up.  While I was hoping for more of an update, I really don’t have much of one.  The weather has been teasing us and giving us warm temps.  I was so ready to get out and get seeds planted!  However, my hubby said we needed to wait because we could still get some temps below freezing.  Sure enough, we have had some freezing temps along with snow flurries!  Thankfully, the only plants I think we lost was the pickling cucumbers that I had bought.   I had bought some strawberry roots/plants and asparagus roots (not for sure what they are called) and they never came up.  I am thinking that perhaps they were already dead in the packages that I bought them in.  I know it is too late to plant strawberries, but will check to see about getting more asparagus to plant.

The rest of the plants that we bought are slowly growing.  We still need to plant some in containers and in the planter box, but will get to that as it warms up a little more.

The oregano, thyme, spearmint, chives and onions have taken off!  The oregano is starting to grow outside of our box!

I got a little carried away with the sunflower seeds!  I am hoping to get enough to roast some this year.  Last year’s seeds went to the birds through the winter.

My strawberry plants have come back from last year.  I don’t think I will get any berries from the plants this year, but I am hoping to keep adding more plants to make a small strawberry bed.  We will be adding a couple more planter boxes, so I will be planting them in one of those.

The squash plants survived the last freeze and I really need to get them in the ground or a  container soon.  We also have brussels sprouts that need to get in the ground soon, too!

Our broccoli is growing great!  We have tried growing broccoli before and have never had success with it.  Looks like we might finally have done something right with it this year. Our rosemary bush has continued to grow since we bought it last year.  It is amazing that the cold hasn’t touched it any this year.

My bell pepper plants also survived the cold weather.  They are looking a little yellow, but are actually healthy and have grown since we bought them.

This past week, my husband started some of our tomato seeds.  We have three different types of tomatoes planted below.  We do plan on plating more, but haven’t picked up the seeds yet.  Our goal is to do some canning this year.  We would like to make some spaghetti sauce, soups and just have plan on tomatoes canned.

 

Now that I have written this all out, it looks like we do have a bit going on with the garden, but still so far to go!  I am excited, as the weather is warming up and we are spending more time outside.  The kids and I are still using the Apologia Botany book for science and have looked through the section on how the seeds grow.  It is so fun seeing the kids see the seeds sprout and grow.  Especially when the plants will start bearing fruits and veggies!

Stop by The Homeschool Village and link up for the Garden Challenge.  You will have a chance to win the Botany book from Apologia.  Also be sure to see the others who are linking up as well!

2012, homeschooling, ,