Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A Little Gardening

Back in February when we were going through bouts of sickness, on the good days we put in our garden.  This year the lettuces didn't do much, but thanks to our cooler than normal spring, some of our other crops are doing quite well.

Here are some of our onions:
We planted three kinds:  red, yellow and white.  My husband buys the onion sets, and this year Son number 3 and I planted them.  FYI:  there are many, many little onion plants in those sets:)

Son number 4 wanted to get in on the planting action, too, so he planted radishes and beets.  The beets didn't do much, but we did get some radishes.  Here he is harvesting them (we had to pull them up to make room for the corn):
Ta-da!
Part of the radish pile:
Here Son number 3 is surveying the rows before we pick some peas.  In the blue buckets are tomato plants.  My husband is experimenting with planting them in buckets, but the jury is still out on the wisdom of this method.
Pea plants are so pretty.  A close-up of some of the peas:
I wish we were more organized, but alas! we are not.  There is no record of what kind of pea this is -- English pea or sugar snap?  Raw, they are very sweet to the taste, which is why I wondered if they are sugar snap.  Nevertheless, we treated them as regular English  peas, shelling and freezing them.  While a part of me really enjoys shelling peas (and breaking beans) -- there is something very satisfying about it -- I will say you must shell a LOT of peas to get even a bowlful:)

We are woefully behind on being self-sufficient.

BUT......it is so worth it to try new things, gain new skills (even if it's ever so slowly), and just live life.
Gardening -- even in our haphazard way -- is one of those things that brings our family pleasure.  Actually, it's mostly my husband and me, but I'm hoping that our enjoyment is rubbing off at least a little on our kids.  I'm hoping it's good for kids to see their parents interested in and trying new things, whether it's gardening, or painting, or sewing, or cooking, or woodworking, etc.  One of my prayers for them is that they will always be interested in life and have eyes that are opened to the wonder of it.


5 comments:

  1. Your garden is big! Those radishes look delicious, and so do the onions. Yes, it's a good family activity and your children will remember it all their lives.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is a big garden! I'm intrigued by what the reasoning is behind your hubby's planting the tomato plants in buckets. (I am trying to think of a way to plant a tomato plant that can follow the sun.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I asked my husband about this and it was only because he ran out of room in the actual plowed up part of the garden. He does say if you decide to try this to use potting soil in the pots. He used regular dirt at first and it got too hard, so each tomato bucket has now been done twice.

      Delete
  3. I can only dream of having such a large garden though I'd never have the time to keep it tended. Also, I was amused to hear that you call what I think we call garden peas, English peas! I have the same hope that my daughter will always be interested in life and keep trying new things - there is so much out there to be endlessly fascinated by. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Julie, here in the southern US English peas have to be distinguished from the more popular black-eyed peas, field peas and Crowder peas (and sometimes peanuts are called goober peas). I think it's because the peas we call English peas (or sometimes green peas) probably grow better in a more moderate climate. Here it is usually too hot to grow them, except as a very early spring crop.

      Delete

I love to hear from you! Thanks for leaving a comment :) I've turned off anonymous comments due to spam. If you would like to leave a comment and can't, send me an email.