The Garden Update

As the days eek by... with watering prunning and watching the garden is begining to put out a few tastey veggies and fruits.  Here is the photo tour of what the garden looks like now...but these will be old before you know it.  It is amazing what God does when you water a little and the sun shines down. 

This is the entrance to the garden...sunflowers in the front (supposed to be the mini variety), two cherry tomatoes and some petunias.

These are the Sugar Snap Peas and the Snow Peas.  We have had two pretty good pickings, about 40 peas each.  The kiddos like eating them fresh picked and I used them in stir fry. 

These are the green beans... you can't see from the photo, but they have extended beyond their five foot trellis by 12 inches...wow.

These are a mixed variety of peppers and our eggplants.  The eggplants have been assulted by bugs recently... I hope they pull through.

This is the squash and zuccini bed number 1.... they are full of blooms and little veggies.

Squash and zuccini patch #2,

This is the Acorn Squash mound and a few little Hubbard squash.  Also mixed marigolds in rows.  The Acorn's need to be trellised badly as every day the grow more and more...reaching thier feelers out for support.

The next few photos are of our latest expansion. The melon patch!

This is a row of small climbing watermellon with alternating Nestersium.

This is the infant cantelope plants, encircled with pest detering flowers. 

These are more juvenille beds, mixed with green and yellow wax beans, zuccini, geraniums, nestersiums, and petunias. 

This is the sweet potatoe patch...also in need of a trellis.

And finally the fruit trees, almost lost in the sea of green.  We still have a few little fruits growing bigger and bigger.  We harvested 6 total Montmorency Cherries.

In an other garden news we have ripped out our broccoli, and lettuce, and are working on filling their vaccancies with more peppers and tomatoes.  They were .25 - .50 cents each so I figured it was worth it.   We also harvested, two blue berries.  Enough to get a taste:)

Lastly, the flowers are also about to really show there stuff. 

This is my favorite bed, petunias spilling out...marigolds and zinnia in the middle and sunflowers as a backdrop.  Should be quite nice in full bloom:)

 

Well it has been a while since my last post, but I wanted to catch up on the adventures with Camile.  I was able to catch her, saddle her and ride her down the road without any hitches. Well... she did want to lay down when I was cinching her up...but I rember Little doing the same thing.  Hmmm...princess pony syndrome:) Anyway, she went down the road well, through the forrest, across logs and puddles....she did wonderful.  We dicided it would be best for her to give her a little more time to mature. She is still very young and being out with  a few of her brothers in the pasture would help her physically and mental mature more naturally.  Out of all of Gyps babies she has the most tender feet, so pounding the rocks as a youngster will hopefully help. 

So we headed out to grain later that evening and decided to take her on out an release her.  I was going to walk her...but I like to say...why walk a horse when you can ride it.  So I hoped on bareback and followed the truck up the hill.  She did great.  My boney behind didn't seem to phase her and she flew up that hill.  Some long trotting and a lot of loping.  Man o'man... riding bareback can sure be a workout. I was pretty sore from holding on with my rarely used upper inside thigh:) But what a blessing to cross another milestone on her before releasing her into the wild:)

She actually didn't want to stay (she probably missed her buddy Bella) but a few encounters with the hot wire changed her direction.  After a few days she is just one of the horses in the herd and I think she looks better then when I stuck her out there:)

I thought I would also do a separate segment on the orchard, now named the 12 apostles …because of the twelve trees that have started our little orchard. Their introduction is as follows; two apples (granny smith and red delicious), two apricots (both tilton), two pear (both moonglow, an Asiatic pear), 3 cherry (Montmorency, Bing, and Tartarian) and 3 plum (Methley, Bruce and Super Sweet). I have documented some of the fruits already on the trees…what a treat…fruit the first year

Red Delicious Apple

Montmerency Cherries

Apricot

 and finally a Super Sweet Plum. 

Well I hope to do a little segment on the blog to follow the growth of the garden. Instead of just posting random photos … I will try to post a few photos following the lives of a few of the little planties

The first set of pictures will introduce the garden

This is the entrance... their are two cherry tomatoes in the green tubs, strawberries in the tan tubs with sunflowers and zinnia in the center. And  a handful of petunias (my new fav flower)

This is the onion/ clover patch...their are mostly red onions but the thick bunchy ones to the right of the photo are OK native wild onions.

 These are the peas, snow and sugar snaps... they are quite tangled but don't seem to be bothered by one another.

These are pole beans on one side of the fence and Radish on the other.  Along with some cute little Marigolds.

This is squash and zuccini patch number 1. This patch we started from seed.

These are the pickling cucumbers and the buckets on the outside of the fence are sunflower, zinnia, and marigold.

This is Squash and zuccini bed number two.  These little plants I purchased at a local nursery.  I also have a run of pickling cucumbers near the back of the bed and a flower bed against the trellis (Snaps, Cosmos, and marigold).

This is the broccoli almost ready to harvest.

This is the Acorn Squash Mound... with a marigold bed in the front and a handful of sunflowers along the lattice.

This is my attempt at a hanging tomatoe plant in a five gal. bucket

These are tomatoes of several varieties...and there are 3 more rows on the other side of the lattice. There are also potatoes in the two far tan tubs.  To the right are peppers, as well as in the near tan tub.

Well I thought I would put a post up about Bella. She is leaving the land of mother hood and getting back into the working horse string! Although, she has been ridden on and off over the last few years…namely by the kiddos taking lessons and trail ridding… she is now official “THE” using horse for Diamond M Livestock. The others, Gyp, Tank, Camille and Squiggy… are in the process of being sold or trained to join Bella in the workforce. She is a very nice mare not only by lineage and parental achievement in a variety of disciplines but also in her individual. She is a one of a kind mare (although, nothing is impossible for God) and everything from her mind to her physique is amazing.

This photo of her warming up is just prior to Aaron roping a hind foot of a few colts, while the boys climb aboard. Bella is sporting a hand-crafted tall curb bit that was made by my uncle, Glenn Schmidt. She really likes the bit and works well in it.

Floral Array

Although, I have mostly been busy gardening in the fruit and vegetable category… I have also put some effort into some floral array around the yard. Not only can some flowers pack a potent punch to pests and other garden intruders but some can really bring beauty to an area. This year has been a great wild flower year and I have seen so many neat flowers all around that God has just placed about.

 I have placed a few bulbs (freesia, hyacinth, and daffodil) along the walk way leading to what used to be our yard (recently removed ). They have been blooming in all sorts of colors, mostly yellow, for a few weeks now.

 But what is really exciting is the Roses! Two roses that Debra got for me late in the season, last year (I think) are heavy with a vibrant fushia-colored rose. They are quite spectacular.

Hope you like my flower photos H2:)