Garden 2013

I began posting about my foray into gardening back in 2011.

The following year I posted about my “original intent” for the garden (but, after doing a little research for this post, I quickly discovered I never completed any follow up about final garden 2012 post).  Well, the “original intent” for Garden 2012 failed miserably.  Garden 2012 - 2.0 was pretty similar to Garden 2011.  I ran into our local greenhouse, picked up some tomato and green pepper plants and planted a few of the remaining seeds (beans and cucumbers) directly into the garden. In addition to the regular harvest of tomatoes and peppers, I got 1 cucumber, and a single serving of beans.  (I just do not do well with seeds).  Also of note was the removal of the raspberry bushes that took up half of our garden real estate.    

With some repairs needed on the framework of the garden box, the Mother of Five and I decided we were going to try and expand the garden this year.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature (and other various factors) had different plans.  The unyielding grip of this season’s Minnesota Winter, and my lack of spare time resulted in not only our failure to expand the garden, but an actually lack of any garden whatsoever. 

I can be a bit of a procrastinator.  I kept telling myself I’ll get around to planting a garden – but suddenly it was June 23^rd, and one of our two local greenhouses was packing up for the season.  This had me feeling a little melancholy.  I have been enjoying the whole gardening experience the past few years – even in the limited quantities / varieties I have been involved in – and I really didn’t want the garden to sit idle this year. 

On a whim, we stopped by the primary greenhouse in town, and found them OPEN FOR BUSINESS.  Not only open for business, but clearancing out several items!  Since it was so late in the season, some of these plants were already fruiting.  Like a kid in a candy shop, I quickly nabbed up three varieties of tomato plants (cherry, grape, and just like me – “Big Boy”), two varieties of peppers (sweet bell and those lovely gypsy peppers I tried in 2011), and on the whim of #5 of 5, we tossed in two cantaloupe plants. 

In these photos, you can see the condition of, and various stages of production of the Garden project 2013. 

  

In anticipation of some gardening earlier in the year, the Mother of Five had #3 of 5 turn over the garden.  This was several months ago now, and the weeds were beginning to take hold once again.

 

#4 of 5, #5 of 5 and myself pulled what weeds were growing, then proceeded to till the garden again.

 

---

 

 

 

I also had a couple of left over pepper plants that I could not fit in the garden – so I am trying my hand at the idea of potted pepper plants!   (Try saying that three times as fast as you can!)

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Since I am already in the thick of it – I am going to post a few of the flowers we have planted around the old compound.  Much (if not all) credit for these belong to the Mother of Five.  If it was not for her, our front patio would look pretty darn drab.

(Above) Come on now.  What good Catholic house does not have a small statue of Mary in their garden? 

(Above)  Four pots with various flowers (planted from seed) by #5 of 5.

---

 

(Above) Front door and front sidewalk.

---

 

(Above)  Various shots of the front patio – from the front yard.

---

   

Miscellaneous shots from our overgrown and neglected side garden.  I had good intentions there a few years back, but the clematis took over and tore down our lattice work – then we lost one shrub to some sort of insect – and the other (large red shrub) just got neglected and has overgrown.

Perhaps a future gardening project?

Garden 2012 – #1

After last year’s gardening success, the Mother of Five and I have kept some plans for gardening in 2012 in the back of our minds throughout the winter.  We talked about what we wanted to do with the garden, knowing that we had to do some planning ahead of time to make gardening a successful endeavor again this year.

Yes, yes, yes… We have had a mild winter indeed – and the days are now starting to warm up again – but it’s still early March, and this is Minnesota…  So our plans are still just that.  Plans.  Today though – I took the first step in this year’s garden plans. 

I was on my way home from a Boy Scouts of America summer camp informational meeting (and having found a couple of GeoCaches) when I remembered that I needed to stop at the local Home Improvement Center for a replacement part that I was needing.  It was there, on my way to the cashier lanes when the large display of garden seeds and supplies caught my eye. 

As I looked over all the ordinary and unordinary selections of vegetable offerings, I could not help but remember that the Mother of Five was at work for the day, and that one (or more) of our brood would be at various other locations, so I started thinking about planting seeds as a fun little project for the kids that were home.

Much like AtHomeDaddy’s experience (and still riding the “high” of last years succes – and the thought of making a fun afternoon out of planting) – I was unable to turn away from the siren’s song, and was lured head first into the seed packet isle.  Also much like AtHomeDaddy’s experience – I walked away from the isle twenty dollars poorer, but seven seed packets, two seedling trays and two bags of starter material richer!

Since we had not fully decided on what we were going to do with or in the garden, I picked up what I considered to be basic garden staples.  Tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers, lettuce, cucumbers, pickle sized cucumbers (the Mother of Five picked up a end of season clearance priced canning set last year so I thought pickles would be an easy fun idea), and Zucchini.  I figured it was a safe bet because the bell peppers were my only “me” choice.  We both like tomatoes, green beans, and lettuce.  The cucumbers and pickle cucumbers, and Zucchini were specifically chosen for the Mother of Five and various children in the house (but not me).

Who knew there were so many varieties of the same vegetables? Seeing as this was my first foray into the seed buying experience – I went with whatever option looked most like what we buy in the grocery store.  I still have LOTS to learn!

---

Once I got home with the booty, I took inventory (of the kids) and found I had two out of five home with me.  #3 of 5 and #5 of 5. 

#2 of 5 had a friend over the night before (i.e. an all night long XBox360 fest) so given the option to plant seeds, he was less than interested – and proceeded to curl up on the couch and fell asleep.  That left #5 of 5 and I to do the “dirty work”!

We had a blast!  We filled both seed starting trays with the seed starting mixture, and got one of the trays planted with seeds.  We left the other seed starter tray for when the Mother of five and #4 of 5 can be home to partake. 

 

 

 

#5 of 5 (seen above) asked if I would leave some of the cardboard I used to make the labels so she could make a sign that read “#5 of 5 and Daddy’s Garden”. 

I said we sure could!!