Getting Ready for Tomatoes...

From the start, I have wanted to make sure and plant plenty of tomatoes...We also knew the tomato process would probably be one of our most time consuming planting processes. We used last Thursday, April 26, to prep our row for giving our tomatoes as good of growing conditions as possible.  Dad dug out our row that morning, then we cleared the row of rocks.  Our soil is still so hard and rocky below the area where we have tilled. After doing a little research and speaking with our "Arkansas Tomato Pro", Dean McGee, we determined we needed to add some manure/compost to our row of soil.  We went to Lowe's and got 10 bags of manure/compost and 10 bags of topsoil that afternoon.

Kately just conveniently had a family function at school that night so I missed out on the "load of fun" of actually applying the manure/compost/topsoil...Dad did the following while I was gone that evening...He added 400 lbs. of cow manure/compost to our 100 ft. row...

Then he added 500 lbs. of potting soil to our 100 ft. row...

Finally, he covered the row up with a light layer of dirt...Here is the tomato row ready for action!

Dad also took the time to use the Merry Tiller to loosen up the dirt on both sides of our mound so we would have plenty of dirt to throw over the edges of our weed barrier in a couple days.



Moving Forward...WOO HOO!

Dad and I were able to move forward with the garden yesterday! We spent about 3 hours in the dirt yesterday afternoon and got a lot accomplished. We planted approximately 60' of Top Crop Bush Beans, 3 mounds of watermelon (9 plants), 3 mounds of cantaloupe (9 plants), 4 Burpless Cucumber plants and 4 Bush Cucumber plants. Dad thought it would be beneficial to put some cow manure/compst in our mounds for watermelon and cantaloupes prior to covering with soil and planting.  So...he did just that!

We ended our evening by planting two rows of sweet corn which came to me as a gift from Denny, one of my nice friends from church. He is a Kansas native and has some friends who actually grow sweet corn for a living. When Denny went back to Kansas for a visit recently, he brought me enough seeds of his favorite kind, Honey Select, to plant a couple rows in my garden! What a great surprise!

We plan to plant 4 different varieties of sweet corn, but plant one variety every 2 weeks so we can spread out the time when it all will be ready to harvest. The size of our garden really seems big to me when I start counting how many corn seeds we planted. So...we planted 2 rows, each 100 ft. long. Each row had approximately 175 seeds. Yes...if all Honey Select corn seeds grow...that is 350 stalks! Whoa...that's a lot of corn! This garden stuff is SO MUCH FUN!

I Can Hardly Wait!

It has been quite a while since I have had anything to post because last week, of course, we had quite a bit of rain and we got mom and dad moved out of their house on time and as planned. It was a very busy and tiring week but needless to say last week's schedule didn't allow any time in the garden. On Friday, however, I did get out and pull some more dirt up around my cabbage and broccoli. My first section of okra never popped up, so I also planted a new 30' section of Clemson Spineless okra...Let's keep our fingers crossed that some of these actually germinate this time!

We've worked so hard these past few months preparing the soil in the garden that I am having a REALLY hard time waiting to put more stuff in the ground. Throughout this process, dad has continually told me not to rush getting everything into the ground. As usual, his wisdom prevailed AGAIN! :) Luckily, we didn't have everything already planted because the heavy frost we received last Saturday night (April 21) would have probably ruined most of it. The 2 bell peppers and 1 jalapeno I had planted received some frost damage...we are hoping they will still pull through but at this point, we aren't sure.

Good news, though...I think tomorrow's forecast and dad's/my schedule may allow us to get a little more planted. As of my last count, we have a total of 32 tomato plants (variety of types), 3 watermelon plants, 3 cantaloupe plants, 4 cucumber plants and some seeds, 4 different varieties of sweet corn, 2 different varieties of beans, green and yellow squash seeds and a packet of pea seeds. This is more than we will have time to plant tomorrow, but atleast I'll get to play in the dirt for a while!

Gonna make him a "Country" boy, yet!

Many have asked me if Ryan has been helping me with our garden project.  My answer usually is, "Um...he's helped pick up a few rocks and carried a heavy bucket of rocks over to the tractor for me, but that's about it."  :0)

From the get-go, Ryan has told me this garden was my baby and I have not expected him to help.  But he has helped in many ways that have allowed me to be able to spend some time in the garden when necessary, such as play catch with Brett or jump on the trampoline with the kids, etc...His support through this project has helped to make it a more enjoyable experience for me thus far. And don't tell him, but I think he is secretly excited about our little project, too! LOL...

He recently had a little time off from work, so he had a little project of his own to complete.  I wanted to make sure and document it to show how even he has gotten a chance to branch out and learn how to do something new lately...He recently took out a barbed wire fence along the left side of our driveway all by himself.  Anyone who has visited our house probably remembers our long driveway.  He removed the fence on the left side of driveway because we didn't need it and it took over an hour to mow and weed eat that one area.  It took him a couple days, but it is finished and it looks great!  Here he is with one of his rolls of barbed wire...Isn't he adorable?!?  I am so grateful God gave this wonderful man to me...I am reminded daily about how blessed and proud I am of him for the leadership role he has chosen to take in our marriage and family.  My respect, appreciation and love for him continues to grow each and every day.  I LOVE YOU, RYNO!

Fertilizing Time...

This past Saturday morning, our kids allowed Ryan and I to sleep in a little.  I can count on one hand the times this has happened since our little man arrived 3 years ago.  So while I was snoozing, dad came over and fertilized our entire garden and I never even knew he was in our backyard!

My dad received his degree in Agricultural Economics.  In the early 70's, prior to his banking career, he worked at Midwest Plant Food in Springfield and saw first hand the benefits of fertilization. Of course, I am sure this knowledge has come in handy more than a few times in his 40+ years of farming!

Again, the perk to having a farmer in the family is the AWESOME equipment to help make the job easier...Here are the tractor and fertilizer spreader ready to go to work!

Here are his exact "educated" words about the fertilization process...
"Commercial fertilizer was spread on the garden this morning (Sat. April 7, 2012).  It was a 3-1-3 ratio of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium).  We put on a 20.2-6.7-20.2 fertilizer at a rate of a 1000 pounds per acre.  Our garden figured out to be .12 acres so we probably spread about 120 pounds on it. Here's how the ground looked after fertilizer was sprinkled on it."

My New Favorite Store...

Since we have begun this garden project, I have found myself visiting stores I never thought I'd find myself in, unless I was with my dad or grandpa.  I would say I have averaged visiting Lowe's, Orscheln's and MFA three times per week.  Not always buying something--mostly just looking around at garden tools/equipment and/or reading plant labels.  BUT...I took my first trip to Nixa Hardware for the first time last week and I was so impressed by everything!  They were very stocked up on everything and there was staff available everywhere!  The staff was so friendly and I could tell it was definitely a hometown store, even though the store is really big! The staff seemed to know customers by their names and seemed to like their job.  The plant area was fully stocked with so many healthy looking plants and their variety of plants available was better than any of the stores I had been frequenting.

We went there again this morning and of course, I walked out of the store with more than I had gone in there for but I know it was partly because of the atmosphere I experienced.  It made me want to stay longer!  Way to go, Nixa Hardware!  (FYI...I don't know anyone that works there or even who owns it, but I just felt like sharing where I had the best all-around luck finding what I was looking for and being satisfied with what I found.)

Even though I only came in the store for onions, my purchase consisted of:
10 white onion sets, 10 red onion sets, 2 Bell pepper plants, 1 jalapeno plant, 3 cantaloupe plants and 3 watermelon plants (I really, really, really wanted to buy a bunch of tomato plants, but I held off for now.)

When I arrived home, I planted the onions in the area where some of my first onions hadn't survived.  Then I went ahead and planted about 15 ft of Eggplant seeds, both bell pepper plants and the jalapeno plant.  I know I may be rushing the season a little, but as for the cataloupe and watermelon...I saw they take 85 days to harvest, so I decided to give a few a try now then plant some by seed on towards May.  That way, maybe I'll have some early summer and late summer!  When we got home, Brett wanted to have some melon right then...He's still learning the "waiting game" in gardening...But, aren't we all?  Ha...We are going to wait a few days to plant my cantaloupe and watermelon until dad and I determine the very best place to put those in the garden due to the area they require to grow. 

On a side note, about 12 feet of the lettuce we planted earlier had a little mishap yesterday.  My free 'hired' help accidently squished it with the tractor tire as he was trying to till up the unplanted portion of our garden again.  So...I replanted that 12 feet of seed yesterday...It's no big deal at all--I just wanted to document it.  Of course, I AM glad that it was his fault and not mine! Hee Hee... :-)

Welcome Back, Ms. Merry Tiller!

As I mentioned in one of my earliest posts, my Grandpa & Grandma George used to have a garden every year when they lived in Springfield.  It seemed SO big and seemed to be the "perfect" garden...Everything was green and bushy.  The vined plants seemed to run everywhere and under every one of their leaves laid an ENORMOUS cucumber or zucchini.  Tomato plants seemed to reach high into the sky.  Those vines seemed to look like the beanstalk in the old Jack & the Beanstalk story to a short little 5 year old!

I don't really remember ever seeing them work in the garden until harvest time and that's when I'd get to help pick stuff!  I remember sitting beside grandma in their living room with a bowl full of freshly picked green beans and we'd watch Days of Our Lives while we snapped off the end of the beans, pulled the string down the side, then snap them in half (sometimes thirds) and throw them in a big stainless steel bowl.  Ahh...those were some fun times!

Anyway, as I mentioned, their garden seemed perfect to me...I don't remember seeing any weeds or grass.  But, I have since learned partly why that was...Grandpa's Merry Tiller!  About 20 years ago, he sold it to my dad and dad has been storing it in his barn ever since.  Since it has been several years since he used the tiller, the engine wouldn't run anymore.  But...when dad and I decided to do this garden, he took it to a small engine repair guy and he put a new engine on it.  Dad used it in our garden today for the first time...

After almost 20 years of retirement, Ms. Merry Tiller, along with her brand new Briggs & Stratton motor were re-commissioned to garden duty as of April 4, 2012!  The picture below shows her sitting proudly alongside the freshly tilled row of broccoli plants.  Dad said she worked like a charm.  Someday, we may try to give her a fresh coat of paint so she looks as good as she feels, but for now since her exterior appearance isn't affecting the way she operates, it'll have to wait.  Thank you, Grandma & Grandpa George for the equipment and the wonderful early gardening memories and thank you dad for getting the tiller up and running again!