Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Garden is In!

First came the planning, layout, design. Always good on paper but when we started to plant things it took on a life of it's own. We actually have lots of space left but I plan to take care of that soon.

Our very nice neighbor tilled our garden for us. This the first year for the garden in this spot so we are hoping, with a little tender loving care, it will grow.


We decided to get an early start on potatoes so we asked at the local tire shop if they had any old tractor tires that they wanted to get rid of and they did. This one was giant. Kevin shoveled about 100 (not really but his back thought so) scoops of dirt into it. He planted a bunch of potatoes and they are already coming up.


We will continue adding dirt as they grow. The black tire warms the dirt and holds the moisture really well. They are growing really fast.


I was walking around nearby and all of a sudden this guy slithers by very quickly, I hollered for Kevin to come quick! He very carefully found his head (cause we could have poisonous snakes here) scooped him up so I could take pictures and figure out what it was. It was definitely not your regular old garter snake.


The pattern was so beautiful but it's tail was rattling... creeped me out. At first the only snake I could find that looked like it was a Massasauga, a poisonous rattle snake but the head and eyes weren't right. I finally found the correct one, it is a Milk Snake. Made me very happy.
Later in the day they found a baby snake of the same variety next door so I guess there are a bunch of them around to scare the crap out of me when I'm gardening.

Kevin and the neighbor checking out the snake.

Our blackberries are doing pretty well, we will even have berries this year. They didn't suffer too bad for being transplanted.


No matter where I go this is always right behind or right next to me. Before we planted our garden the first thing we did was to put up a fence. To keep away deer, bunnies, groundhogs but mostly to keep away him. He and Buddie got into our plants and scruffed up a bunch of them. I'm glad they didn't like how they tasted or we would have none left. My girlfriend had just told me how her sheep had eaten two flats of her cabbage and then the next day our geese ate ours. You would think I would have been a little smarter.




He must have gotten under the tractor or something. He's got a grease Mohawk.


The Snow-in-Summer is one of my favorites. It will climb all over the rocks. That is if I can keep the wild morning glories off of it!



Kitchen update. Windows in, lights up and the bar is mostly done.


Tile is laid, it has been grouted but I don't have a picture. We used a darker tannish grout. This tile will go all around the oven too.


Here is the front of the bar. I have to do a lot of finish work but that is all on hold until we get some rainy days. The house really suffers when we garden all day for days on end.



I put up these tarps to keep the weather off of the lean-to for the chickens. I was looking around the other day, pulled back the tarp and found out where the missing eggs are.



She was sitting on about 50 eggs. Nice huh?


Til next time..
(We build a dock!)
Beth

6 comments:

EllaJac said...

I think I'd love to move to an island where there is NO morning glory! That stuff is Evil.

Nice garden spot!

Terry said...

Hi
Blesings of joy to you for your journey .
Thank you for sharing.
Loved the photos ,Milk snakes still scare me until I realize what they are :0
You have an awesome place.
I really enjoyed my visit.

Snowbound Farms said...

Beautiful pics. we tilled our garden spot for the second time this year, the hardest thing for us has been fighting back the grass that wants to retake over. Our neighbor who tilled the garden for us said that it takes about 5 years to really establish a garden plot of our size, we'll see. Good luck with yours. God Bless.

sariah said...

I love your kitchen! It is looking so great. That stash of 50 eggs is pretty funny. Are they fertile? I didn't know chickens would sit on that many at a time!

Kevin and Beth said...

After about 2 1/2 weeks, slowly, most of them disappeared. There were a few here and there so I think I have a egg eater. I didn't really want any to hatch (secretly I did)it would have been so cute to have them. I ended up taking the last few and throwing them away. Thanks for the kitchen complement. It is on hold kinda while I take care of about 35 or 40 baby turkeys and the garden. I must blog about them. I have a roomful! One more hatched this morning, or I guess I helped him hatch. He was a little late and I don't think he could get out.

sariah said...

That is lot of turkeys! When you blog about them, you'll have to tell us what you're going to do with that many turkeys. :-)