Garden 2012 - October

Sometime in late October/early November we put our garden to sleep.  The kids thought it was sad, but they were already planning what they were going to plant next year. :)

Keith's turnips were prolific!  I asked him when he came home with seeds if he had ever eaten a turnip before and he said no....probably why he bought the seeds. :D

I'm ashamed to say they are still in the garden, too. :) I have eaten a few of them and we have given some away, but we haven't had any return visitors come for more turnips. :)  And you can only eat so many turnips.....they sure are a pretty color though.

Kristyn picking the last of the peppers that the frost didn't get.

See all the spinach behind Owen?  It's so tasty. :)

So that's our garden for 2012.  I hope you didn't find it boring....I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting our garden and can't wait to start our new one in a couple of months. :)

Garden 2012 - September

September was a pretty month with some rain - you might remember these posts HERE   and   HERE about this month.   

Our green beans came up beautifully (then later froze before they even had their first beans.)

Fall Spinach coming up - and I must say, I am quite surprised and pleased because it is STILL growing out there, yes, in January! :)

We got to enjoy Kristyn's hard work in planting her Cantalope. So tasty!

 

We had meals like this....deer, onions and peppers on the grill.

I must have forgotten to take a full garden picture this month.  The garden was still doing very well.  Lots of tomatoes, peppers, okra and cantalope....

Garden 2012 - August

August was a hot one, but the garden still did well.  The cucumbers and squash patch was taken out and that made room for some other fall vegetables to be put in.

Our sunflowers hung their pretty heads, so we took them down for the birds to enjoy.

Jeren showing how big his pepper plants grew.  They got to be taller than he was. :)

We found this fellow somewhere and brought him home for the garden.  He did a great job of eating the tomato worms - we even watched him win a fight with a bird over a tomato worm. :)

Howdy, Sir!

We planted okra in July and by August is was up and blooming - isn't it gorgeous?

Our first little okra.  We pickled quite a few jars of okra (the kids favorite) and we froze about 20 quart sized bags of sliced okra to use in Succotash. Don't know what that is?  Think: fried potatoes, carrots, sweet potato, corn and okra all in the same pan......Absolute Yumminess!!!  (Silver Dollar City style)

The squash patch got tilled up again and Keith went down to the local little farmer-market-type store and asked what to plant in a fall garden.  Their answer....Green beans, Turnips, Spinach.  So he bought seeds for all three and brought them home.

Squash patch turned Turnip patch!

Fall Green Beans planted.

Garden 2012 - July

We were gone a lot in July, so when we got home the garden looked pretty sad.

 

Our sunflowers were beautiful though!

The very day we got home the kids picked all the tomatoes.

I think our lettuce is past eating, what do you think?

One picking from one day. :)

We got busy and took out the plants that were done producing, to make room for more to be planted as soon as the days got cool enough for a second crop.

We pulled lots of grass.  Since this was our first year of having our garden here, the grass from the yard tried it's best to come back - but we won that war. :)

Look at that sweet, sweaty face.... *smooch*

After a few waterings - it perked up.

We did a LOT of this - this was just from one day. :)

Garden 2012 - June

In June, we really got to enjoy fruits (or vegetables) of our hard work we had put in.

The squash grew great!

The boys checking out the latest creature to visit the garden.

 

Yummy Green Beans!

I forgot to take a full garden picture until dark.

 

Lettuce - yummy salads!

 

We all like peppers! (We planted red, yellow, green and jalepenos)

 

 

This we just the yellow peppers from one picking. :)

 

Zucchini

 

Garden 2012 - May

By May, the garden was really growing. The entire family enjoyed seeing new things come up - you'd think we had never seen anything like it before. :)

Megan had a cucumber patch, Owen had squash, Kristyn had tomatoes and Jeren helped Daddy with the peppers.

We planted peas and they did GREAT!  None of them made it into the house, though. :)  We just ate them in the garden, but that's what we planted them for.

Aren't Pea Blossoms beautiful?

Owen's Romain Lettuce (note to self: Thin them out next time).

Onions!

Our first little tomatoes.

Owen was so excited to see his first squash blossom.

Nobody can have a garden without flowers, can they?

Also, in May, we got lots of rain - remember THIS post?