Volunteer tomatoes

We put up the netting around the 3 veggie beds last weekend, but I've been bad about blogging on this site. It isn't because I've been outside working....no, no.... it's because I'm a teacher, and I'm SWAMPED at the moment.

I still need to plant the beans in with the corn, and get the rest of the peppers and cucumbers in the ground - maybe tomorrow.

I have very happy lettuce (and basil for that matter). The corn seems to have taken a growing break this week....

The tomatoes though, are my focus this weekend. I planted these great little plants that I started from seeds, and they don't seem to be doing too well.... BUT if you look closely at the picture below you'll see all of the HAPPY little tomato seeds from last year coming up in the bed where I planted them last year. I had to explain to Cheesie, and the girl next door, that when we didn't pick the yucky fruit last year, or the tomatoes that the birds ate, left seeds behind, and they have been waiting for a year to grow -and they are.... like weeds.... I'll let them go a bit longer and then transplant them, or thin them out. The girls had to think about that a bit because they got stuck on the idea that people had to plant the seeds - I didn't overwhelm them with a seed dispersion theory because they were running across the different backyards today, but I will be talking to Cheesie about it again - kids should understand this stuff. It is hard to see in this picture, but the soil on the bottom side of the picture is covered in tiny tomato plants.

Forever ago

I know it has been ages since I posted on this blog, but I was feeling like my efforts weren't really blog worthy, and then I wrestled with the possibility of just putting all of this on my family blog, but it didn't seem to fit. Thankfully Brian began work in March after 8 months of unemployment. We are lucky that we get to stay here, and don't have to try to sell the house in this economy, but he was looking EVERYWHERE. I will share a post on how we managed a few things at a later date, but right now our goal is to continue living as we have been, and use Brian's paycheck to pay down a few more bills in case this happens again.

Spring is in SC, and now is the time to work on the yard. One of our goals is to expand the garden. Last weekend Brian had finished cleaning up a lot of the general yard debris, and moved the buttefly garden over to another part of the yard. Then we went out and bought some temporary fencing for the garden to try to keep the rabbits and possible deer from eating more of our garden than we do (like last year). My uncle loaned us a tiller, and Brian got busy on the former butterfly garden. We may expand it even more.

We have planted our seeds, and my little lemon tree has bloomed and is trying to now produce lemons (see the tiny little green things developing --- my future lemons). Our peach tree has new growth on it, and one little bloom. We plan on growing, lettuce, beans (bush and pole), tomatoes, peppers, okra, corn, basil and oregano at the moment, we'll have to see how this progresses.Hopefully we can keep the animals from eating before we harvest things, and enjoy more of our garden this year.