Jon and I were, to say the least, discouraged at the thought of a garden this year. Turns out we're professionals at growing weeds and killing all other forms of edible vegetation.
On Mother's Day, our ward handed out tomato plants to each of the women. I was happy, but then at the same time a bit apprehensive thinking that I would need to take care of this plant. We bought a Topsy-Turvy thing-a-ma-jig and decided to try it out. If it grew, fabulous. If not, oh well. I somehow managed to get 2 more tomato plants bringing the total to 3. So, I have three topsy-turvy's hanging on our back patio. And I'm happy to report, so far, so good!
I have some raspberries and blackberries that I planted last year and the year before. I knew I'd get something, but knew I'd have to fight the birds if I wanted any berries. Well, I really didn't have to worry about the birds as I did the bugs. Maybe next year... I did however get a picture of a blackberry (before it turned "black"). It's as big as Jon's thumb!
After much discussion, Jon and I decided to plant a small garden and see what happened. I decided with the rainy, cold, spring weather, it would be smart to plant seeds inside and when they were big enough, I could plant them outside. Well.... My 72 corn seeds grew into what looked like weeds (see, I'm an expert at that) and then died. My 24 pumpkin, 24 watermelon, and 24 cantaloupe seeds grew into 1 cantaloupe sprout. Nothing else popped up. Talk about discouraging!
Finally the sun came out and the morning that I had decided to toss the whole idea of a garden, along with the 71 duds, I walked into the room I was attempting to grow them and I had14 pumpkin starts, 5 cantaloupe starts and 5 watermelon starts. Talk about a miracle!
Jon and I decided that we might as well attempt the garden after all. The only place that was feasible this year was next to our wood stack and only a few feet from the field behind our house. We planted our cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, and 2 rows of corn. It's small, but we've decided it's a "test" garden. If we get anything out of it, we'll definitely plant another one next year!
At the top there are 2 mounds of pumpkin plants. Then on both sides of the sprinkler, are our rows of corn. And then in the bottom left we have watermelon and bottom right is cantaloupe. (Told you it's small).
This is how close we are to the field of lima beans. It's only a matter of maybe 4 feet and then you're in a row. The best part about it.....the irrigation that waters the field completely waters our garden. I only have to put the sprinkler every once in a while.
I don't know if this has been interesting or not, but I am thrilled that something other than weeds are growing in my garden! So....hopefully by August sometime, we'll have some watermelon, corn and cantaloupe and by October we'll have some pumpkins!
