The first harvest!

Yesterday I noticed the radishes were poking their little red bodies from the dirt. The kids came running to see and proceeded to pick our "first harvest" from the garden!

Here they are:

These guys went a bit rogue:

Our lettuces are coming along well too!

Here is the red chard:

I must admit....I have no idea what this is....:

The romaine, my favorite lettuce:

The broken bits you see with the lettuce are egg shells. I read a tip that they can stop certain creepy crawlies from eating/getting to your tender greens. It supposedly slices them right up......let's hope it works!

We love Spring!

It keeps tempting us, now please, please stay!

*All photos courtesy of Miss Ashlynnie

Look what's still blooming!

Here it is October 22nd in the Midwest and my sweet tomato plants have just started blooming again!




Of course, we're still waiting for these September bloomers to turn red....




We've had a glorious late summer and fall this year (last year we had record lows for October-yuck!) and the kids and I have enjoyed every minute of the warm days. I'm keeping my shorts and short sleeve shirts out in hopes that November will turn out just as amazing.

There is always HOPE!!!

Then you're going to entertain us.....

I was working away in my garden the other day when I glanced over at the parsley to see this:






It was completely gone. Then, I noticed several of these on the stems that remained:




Yep, that would be good old caterpillars. They devoured my herbs, so I did the only thing I could think. From the recycle bin in the garage, I found last weeks' empty spinach carton and rigged it up as a make shift hotel for the little critters.





Well, they couldn't all fit, so Ashlynn, Ryder and Gage each have a "pet". Here is Ashlynn's getting ready to form its chrysalis:



What's that saying, "When you mess with the bull, you get the horns"? How about "When you mess with my garden, you become our entertainment!"

I'll be sure to post pictures when they hatch.

How we fill our time.

Some of it anyways......

Remember my mother's day gift? Randy built me two 4' X 8' raised bed vegetable gardens. We worked side by side constructing the frame, hauling back wheelbarrow loads full of dirt and leveling it just right for planting.

So here it is, just two and half months later.....

Bed #1

My sweet little carrot tops!

Radishes, they are spicy and Ashlynn loves them!

Bed #2:

Pole Beans making their way up the trellis:

Tomatoes, the whole reason the have a garden!!!

In bed #1, we have tomatoes (all heirloom: three goliath, a cherokee purple, a sweet 100's cherry, & a german black); radishes, onions, carrots, peppers, pole beans, corn, oregano, and basil.

In bed #2 we have corn, snow peas, radishes, onions, bush beans, parsley, cilantro and chocolate mint (Ashlynn's favorite!).

The soil, seeds, and plants are all organic, we have our work cut out to keep the pests off. Fortunately, the internet has copious amounts of info on how to keep them out!!