Oh my, I haven't posted in ages. Thought I'd come and post and update because it is just way too hot to do much else around here! It's near 100 today, and should break 100 the next 3 days or so. It never gets this hot around here, so we are really not used to it at all. It's also very humid, which just makes it so much worse.
ANYWAY. The garden is booming! We have harvested 5 gallon sized bags of raspberries in the freezer, and eaten our fair share fresh as well. We also have about 3 gallon size bags of blueberries in the freezer. Those are much harder to get in the freezer as my girls wolf them down as soon as they are picked!
Zuccini is coming in like crazy. We've had our first baby potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, beets, turnips, onions and lots of peas, and lettuce although those two are are just about gone now. We should be getting our first beans, cukes and carrots anytime now. Our corn, watermelon, canteloupes, pumpkins and winter squash look to be doing really well. For the first time our apple trees look like we will have a nice harvest and we are excited about that. Next year or maybe even this fall, the kids have requested that we put in some grapes and more plum trees. We have some very old Italian style plums here which are still producing, but they are very small, so I'd like to try and find some type of plum that produces the bigger plums. If you have recommendations, please let me know what has worked for you!
Hope you are all staying cool and sipping some lemonade while you enjoy watching your gardens grow!
Hot Hot HOT!!!!!
Gurney's box of goodies and more!
Look what came in the mail on Friday? 
It includes 5 bags of onion sets, 3 yellow Ebenezer, and one bag each of red onions and white onions.
52 bare root Whopper Strawberry plants
And last, 2 bags each of potato starts, in the Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold and Kennibeck varieties
I had hoped to start getting these planted this weekend, but we were too busy trying to finish the new chicken coop. Check out our progress at my Keeping Backyard Chickens blog. We're almost done!!! I'll have to hope my husband can get the rototiller out tomorrow after work so I can get these in in the next few days.
My seeds I started inside over Easter have been doing well also. Here's a peek at them as well! These include red & green cabbage, broccoli, watermelon, cantaloupe, cukes, zuccini, butternut squash, acorn squash and Burgess Buttercup squash.
I am feeling slightly overwhelmed as all I have to get done in the garden in the next few weeks. I love this time of year, but it sure keeps me busy! Hope you are all checking things off your to do list and making progress on your things to do.
Happy Easter!
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We had a quiet day at home. We cooked a big ham dinner last night for some friends, and the family has been munching on ham leftovers all day. The girls woke early to see what the Easter Bunny had brought and have been eating more sugar than they should be. It's our last day of Spring Break with everyone home, and we are basically having a veg day, with lots of heavy rain outside.
We didn't quite finish the new coop yet which was the plan. The weather wasn't cooperating. Hoping to finish it next weekend as it is very very close to being done. Just have to finish the run and put in the pop door for the birds.
I did manage to get some seeds planted today and now have them under my new grow lights on heated seed mats. I planted 3 types of cukes, 2 types of zucchini, 3 types of winter squash, red and green cabbage, broccoli, watermelon and cantaloupe. I'm very excited about the last two as I have never planted them before. Our growing season here is rather cool and short, but I found a short season variety of each so I'm giving them a go. Whatever I can do to grow more fruit is a good thing as my kids go through it so fast!
I'll be watching the mail this week as I got my shipping notice from Gurneys.com that my potato starts, onion sets and my strawberries are on their way. I couldn't resist these Whopper Strawberries!
