Projects & Progress

These two Cherry Tomato plants are separated from the main garden.

The children refer to these plants as the "Snack Machines".

(mulched with rotten hay around the base of each plant, caged, and then the perimeter is mulched with straw.)

Patch 1 of our GreenBeans have sprouted. (mulched with straw)

Our Cucumber Seeds have come up. We made the mounds, put in the seeds, and then covered the mounds with sheets of rotten hay. After that we mulched the rest of the "bed" with straw. This works great to keep the soil moist, and is also helping amend our clay soil.

In this last row, we planted our Kitchen Herbs -- Chives, Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Parsley, and Rosemary. (mulched with sheets of rotten hay to hold moisture)

To the right of the path are our tomato plants - mostly Romas, with a few BeefSteak, Early Girl, and Mr. Stripey added in. To the left of the path are our pepper plants - Sweet Bell peppers and Jalapenos. And at the opposite end of the pepper plants are 5 Black Beauty eggplant plants. We surrounded the base of each plant with rotten hay, staked every plant, and then mulched the remainder of the bed heavily with straw.

This is our garden at the mid-point. We had planted seeds and most of our plants, and had begun to lay down the landscape fabric paths. The next day we started mulching with the rotten hay (round bale at far right corner of garden) and with straw (still loaded on the trailer at this point).
This is a photo taken after we spent all day putting down the mulches of rotten hay and straw.

Another photo of the "Snack Machines".

Our first PEA plant.

The mounded row to the right is YELLOW CROOKNECK SQUASH,

and the mounded row to the left is ZUCCHINI.

(to the far right, mulched with straw, is Patch 2 of Blue Lake Bush GreenBeans -- the seeds in this patch have not sprouted yet.)

Duck Exodus PART 2

"Said Duck" was injured a few weeks ago by a snapping turtle. So he moved to the chicken house / pen to be showered (to keep the wound clean) and then to have medicated ointment applied 2x per day. His injury finally healed and most of his feathers finally began to grow back. He has a bit of "scabbing" left, but was in good shape again. So -- at long last -- he was returned to the pond with his friends.

The 3 Amigos were VERY happy to see "said duck" again -- or perhaps they were happy because he brought several humans with pockets full of oats ?? Who knows !! There was a lot of quacking and swooshing of tail feathers -- and the 4 Amigos have been swimming round the pond together ever since. What a happy ending !!

On the side of the shed is last year's Herb Garden (inside railroad ties) -- this year it is the MINT garden.

And on the back side of the shed is the freshly tilled and amended Strawberry Patch -- no plants yet.

Here is the finished Strawberry Patch -- covered in newspaper, and soaked. Then plants were inserted in holes -- and then the whole area was mulched with straw.

The Strawberry plants look so much better -- they had been starting to wilt a bit in their pots.

A close up of one of the Strawberry plants.

We have all had a grand time working on the garden together -- everyone worked hard and worked as a team. Even DadToCherubs pitched in a bit, when it wasn't too hot or too muddy. (HA !) It seems nearly impossible to believe that we have gotten SO many BIG projects completed in so short a time (it has just been 2 weeks since Soccer ended, and we really started working on things around here). The children have been fantastic about diligently working on the gardens almsot every afternoon -- they have worked on each step of the projects / processes with great pleasure. And OH MY the Botany "lessons" have been pouring out all through every step -- Charlotte Mason would be so pleased (Narration at it's finest, for sure !).

Now -- on to the Flower Beds.