The SUN is SHINING!
The birds are “chirping”.
My chickens are laying EGGS!
It’s almost SPRINGTIME folks!
It’s time to plant the garden!
We gotta get ready!
So …how?
What do I do first? Then? Next?
( Sound familiar? )
We in NORCAL are ready to…
GET OUR HANDS DIRTY!
We have 3 raised gardens…
The garden behind the white fence.
And an extra large garden.
The windmill in our garden.
Yes…We have our own windmill.
( NO..it does NOT pump water…BUT IT LOOKS SO COOL!)
Our twelve-foot sunflower in the garden!
Last year… 12 ft. tall SUNFLOWERS!
Our garden has tomatoes, onions, corn, and peppers.
Corn, tomatoes, garlic, onions, tomatillos, cilantro, peppers,
green beans, squash, pumpkins, grapes
The sunflowers are beginning to grow in the garden.
In the beginning…(sunflowers)
Our granddaughters found worms in the garden.
And our helpers…
Our granddaughters & grandson LOVE DIRT!
Best friends with WORMS!
(Put your coffee grounds into your garden…worms LOVE THEM!)
The black chicken is in the coop.
The white chicken likes to eat the vegetables from the garden.
We also have 2 chickens…
Snow white (Black..I know…SNOW WHITE has BLACK HAIR)
and Rapunzel ( She used to have yellow feathers..)
Granddaughters named them…
Thank You, Disney!
We also live in the suburbs…NO FARM!
We just grow what we use & use what we grow!
So Valentine’s DAY is usually the “day”.
START YOUR SEEDS!
Plant your garden!
HUH?
How? Where?
HUH?
We use seed starter kits.
( Lowes, Home Depot, etc)
We start the seeds for the garden in small starter kits.
We put one seed in each “pot”, water daily,
and keep in the sun…
INDOORS!
(Usually on MY kitchen table for a while). 🙁
As the seeds sprout…we move them into a small greenhouse outside for acclimation.
A small hothouse helps the small plants grow.
As the seeds gain height and leaves…
We plant them in the gardens.
We try to plant/ sprout / acclimate/ plant in the gardens
at different times.
That way we always have produce ripening.
I also have herbs:
cilantro, parsley, basil, rosemary, chives, mint
growing year round.
This year we are trying something new.
( In addition to what we already have..)
Straw bales for the new garden.
Straw Bale Gardening!
Researching it now.
Looks promising!
(I think I may propose this one at school too).
Great for growing plants in a small space!
A NEW garden!
OK..then what?
We have ALL of this summer produce!
What do we do with it?
(You can only eat so much…so fast!)
Well…
Hubby cans!
(Yes…HE CANS!)
* This year SANTA brought him a new pressure canner!
Happy hubby…Happy wife! 🙂
After we harvest, we can to preserve our produce.
Peaches…yummy!
We made sauce from the garden tomatoes.
Salsa, spaghetti sauce, tomatoes.
ALL kept in storage for WINTER!
And me?
I dehydrate…I dehydrate WELL!
We dehydrate the garden vegetables.
Preserving fruits and vegetables.
I Love my dehydrator!
My new LOVE is
PERSIMMONS!
Persimmons can be preserved.
I can’t wait to dehydrate them this fall.
Persimmons to snack on…ALL YEAR LONG!
YUMMY!
And ALL from the gardens!
The 2018 US Farmer’s Almanac
IT’S TIME TO PLANT!
According to FARMER folklore,
The farmer’s timetable for planting is:
“When you can put your bare behind on the soil
& it is WARM…
time to plant!”
I haven’t actually tried that…
I think I will wait for a little more SUN and make a good GUESS!
It’s almost time!
Get your gardens ready..it’s time to
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY! 🙂
The farmer and his wife.
If you are looking for a fun gardening unit for your CLASSROOM…
*click on the FREE PREVIEW..:)
Robby Rabbit’s Garden
Click HERE to see the new packet.
Check out some more GARDEN fun from 1stgradefireworks:
My 11yo planted sunflowers this year! Hopefully they grow. 😉