Soil Therapy

Working in the garden is sort of like therapy.  There’s just something about it that’s good for your body, mind and soul.  Maybe it’s the sunshine, or working the rich, black soil.  Or maybe it’s just being out in the fresh air, and interacting with God’s beautiful creation.  I don’t know, but I love doing it!

Yesterday, my sister Abby and I worked on getting some more things started in the garden.  We planted (all in seed form) beans, radishes, okra, and cantaloupe.  I planted four squash seedlings that I started about a week ago.  I’m just hoping and praying all the seeds I planted will spring up and grow big, strong and healthy!  Oh, we also planted eight of the raspberry plants, and have to expand the bed to plant the rest of them.  We’re going to add some string or rope to the clothes line poles and grow the vines up on them.  And, a couple days ago Mom and Dad transplanted our fig tree from it’s pot to the ground.  So, we have quite a garden going here in the bustling suburbs of Dallas, Texas!

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Joel works on dismantling some old pallets.

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Joel is such a hard worker! He built all the potato boxes from wood off of old pallets.

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It’s not property of Coca-Cola any more!

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The raspberry patch.  Looking forward to seeing these guys go crazy!!

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The micro greens have grown even more since I last blogged.

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Just look at the beautiful, vibrant green! It’s so beautiful.

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Oh, and to add to our little homestead / backyard garden, we have a large peach tree filled with unripened peaches.  Grandma has had this peach tree in the backyard for as long as I can remember, and it’s produced very well for a long time!  

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Up close: raspberry leaves.

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Our little space for the potted plants. It gets plenty of sun in the morning and early afternoon, and then shade for the rest of the day. Lettuce and herbs are growing there.

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Up close: Comfrey leaves.

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You know, I’m not sure what these flowers are from. One of the herbs, I believe.

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A baby cabbage plant.

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Italian Parsley

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My handy-dandy clip-board has accompanied me on many a gardening venture.

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Sunflower seeds are a fun thing to keep your mouth occupied. 🙂  (And, no, these aren’t from our garden!)  

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The bean plot.

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The future spot (hopefully!) of many a cantaloup vine!

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See those four little green plants? Those are the squash plants. 🙂

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The radish rows.

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And, last but not least, the okra spot.

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I’m happy! Hope all your gardening pursuits are going well!

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Spring Growth

My squash seedlings!

My squash seedlings!

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I planted four of the squash seedlings I started, and they’re already growing. Hopefully there won’t be any more cold spells, and they should do just fine!

Lettuce

Lettuce

The raspberry vines.

The raspberry vines.

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Our pots with lots of herbs!

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The poor spinach doesn’t seem to be doing very well. I really need to figure out why. Any suggestions, guys?

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The potatoes are doing fantastically! In fact, we need to get another box on top of them.

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Ah! I just love the way this lettuce patch looks. So green, lush, beautiful!

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It’s growing like crazy!

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Love the vivid colors.

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I think I’m going to plant my whole backyard in lettuce next year… 🙂

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Onions, onions, and more onions. Not hard to grow, and yummy for all kinds of cooking!

 

An Afternoon in the Garden

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Our onion patch

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Tiny carrots

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Kohlrabi and baby carrots

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Thinking

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Rehabbing a garden plot

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Hard at work

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Clearing back the mulch…

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…so we can plant the seeds.

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We planted broccoli and spinach seeds.

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These are flowers on our Arugula plants that have gone crazy.

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More onions.

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Cauliflower

 

Seeds are Sprouting!!

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Sunning in the window.

My little seeds that I started several days ago, are starting to sprout!  Actually, they started to sprout a few days ago, but I haven’t had a chance to blog about it until now.  Among those that have sprung up, are tomatoes, eggplant and onion.  The others haven’t showed themselves above ground yet.  😉   But, they should very soon!

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Just above the ground

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Purple tomato seedlings

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All lined up in the window sill.

DIY Paper Seed Starting Pots

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Gardener’s Update: After using this for my squash, I would not recommend using notebook paper.  My squash is basically dying, and I believe it is because the paper kept the roots bound too long (i.e. it didn’t break down fast enough).  This was sort of an experiment, but the instructions can still be used with … Continue reading