The garden is taking shape! We have the following growing successfully; watermelon, onion, 3 kinds of tomato, acorn squash, pole beans, potatoes, corn, 2 kinds of cucumbers, peppers and radishes. Crossing our fingers for the lettuce to come up. We planted strawberry's that were already established in a bed and dug up and given to us (Thanks Norm). They seem to be doing good.
We were unsuccessful with our first batch of onion, cauliflower, broccoli, seed peppers and carrots. I think we planted the seeds to deep in the ground with the combination of the not-so-warm weather here in Michigan. We even had a frost in June.
A few things we have learned:
1)Plant seeds inside before season starts.
2)Plant like package says or what fellow family/friends say who have grown it before.
3)Check the weather to see if rain is coming, no need to waste our own water.
4)Don't always count on the weather....LOL
MIL says we should be able to harvest the radishes soon. They were our first crop to be planted and looking nice.
Oh the NOT so little, 3 LITTLE PIGS. Yes they have grown. The are so damn big I think we will be butchering them sooner than expected. The guy we bought them from is coming out today to let us know what he thinks. We were told it would take from March to July to fatten up. About 4 full months. I think ours did it in about 3 and 1/2 months. So far the girl (black one) has fattened up a bit larger the the boy (white one). We still have to make a final decision on the butcher. We've had lots of info thrown at us. We need to keep our costs as low as possible. We halos need to get rid of the other pig. Our plan was to eat one, and sell one to pay for the one we eat. Well at the very least cover as much of the costs as
possible.A few things we learned:
1) Pigs eat ALMOST anything. If they get good scrap, feed and can graze, they leave the greens (grass/weeds/corn husks) til last and may not even eat them at all because they are full.
2)Pigs are pushy and taste test everything. Walk into the pen and suddenly you and your tools become a food samples.
3)Even a big heavy feeding trough and water trough get knocked over. Better to have them nailed to the fence.
You guys are going to do just fine! Some try a thing once and if it fails they give up. I can tell from your posts that you have what my dad called "stick-to-it-ive-ness" and thats what it takes. This is the third year I have tried rhubarb in western KY and it finally "took". (we moved here from PA in '03) You guys need an award or something but I don't know how it works to give them on blogger or I would, so I'll just say "You go, y'all!"
ReplyDeleteSunny...I love that! Stick-to-it-ive-ness. Thanks for the support and encouraging words. Congrats on the rhubarb success!
ReplyDeleteI find lettuce about the easiest thing to grow and I believe they can survive a frost. It is one of the first things that I get in the ground here in CT. I germinate them between two paper towels and have them in the ground in 3-4 days after that. Beans and squash are also very easy. I always have trouble with starting tomatos and peppers indoors as they like very hot conditions, I always end up puchasing a flat at one of the local farms. Next year I may try to build a small portable greenhouse, one that I can roll indoors at night, maybe then I will be able to grow my own tomatos and peppers from seeds.
ReplyDelete-Ken
Ken....Well sadly enough we didn't have any letttuce come up. We planted two seperate times. Not sure what we did wrong.
ReplyDeleteHi Melissa, I have been reading with interest, although I haven't read everything yet. I thought maybe you would be interested in looking into perennial fruits and vegetables. Some are the traditional blue berry bushes and apple trees, but others are a little more obscure, like Jerusalem artichokes and Welsh onions. I am new to this and still learning, but the beauty of perennials are, they keep giving even when you are busy with annuals. Something to think about anyway.
ReplyDeleteNaneki...Thanks for the advice, we have thought about doing perennials for sure and plan to in the future. With it being our first year ever gardening we have lots to learn.
ReplyDelete