When Life Gives You Lemons...

My days have been spent baking savory breads and making jams and jellies (a post is coming soon on the jams and jellies). We have been so busy that we have almost let the garden go. But this past weekend we decided it was time. We had talked about putting in a big enough garden that we could sell our produce, in fact we already have requests for produce from friends and family.

But that was not to be. Our tiller decided to not start. Mr. HFA is pretty handy and mechanically inclined so he can fix almost anything. When he couldn't fix it, I knew we were in trouble. Of course his first comment (out of frustration) was we might as well forget about a garden this year. But for me, that is not even an option.

Last year our garden was a total flop. We had so much rain within a 30 day period that not only did our garden flood, killing everything in it, but our roof on our house leaked sending a steady stream of water into our living room floor. With that amount of rain, we did not have a garden last year, and I did not want to repeat the same fate this year.

In the fall of last year, Mr. HFA built me some raised garden beds with wood we already had on hand. You can read about it here. We decided to add on to our raised beds and make a bigger area.

Blackberry blossoms, our hillside is covered with them!

We have seen signs this spring of a good harvest. I hope that it continues. Our blackberries are filled with blooms. In fact I have never seen so many in the 4 years that we have been on our land. The last time we picked blackberries, we were able to get a bucket full and that's it. This year, I already have dreams of blackberry cobbler, blackberry jelly, and selling blackberries at the farmer's market.

Our wild gooseberries! The berries are getting so big!

Our gooseberries are also doing really well. In fact it won't be much longer before they are ready to pick. The gooseberries are wild, and usually the wild ones are small. However when we went walking this past weekend checking out our berries, I noticed that they are huge for being wild.

So our garden has started. Since I didn't take the time to start my own plants this winter, I do need to buy some more tomato plants. Of course I will get those at the farmer's market. They are better quality and less expensive than getting them at a big box store. And we need to finish up the addition on to our raised garden bed.

Our pepper plants. Since our chickens are free range, we have to have covers for our garden.

Currently we have a tomato plant, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, and okra. I will be adding more as we get more space.

Our loan tomato plant, but it won't be for long.

I think we will try and fix a spot in our "normal" garden area for some pumpkins, gourds, and watermelon. They need lots of space to vine.

Our raised garden. You can see our original garden area right behind it.

So while normally we would feel defeated, I'm not going to let set-backs ruin my garden this year. Is the raised garden pretty? No, not by a long shot, but it will be beautiful when all those vegetables start growing. And if we only get enough to feed our family, then I will be more than happy with that. Of course I'm hoping to have enough cucumbers to make some of my yummy sweet and spicy pickles and our family's favorite lime pickles.

So I guess the moral of this post (there is always a moral, isn't there?), is that no matter what life throws at you, find a way to keep on. You may need to reinvent your original idea, but don't let anything stop you!

Let me know in the comments below how your garden is doing!

Leave a Comment berries, blackberries, gardening, gooseberries, raised beds, vegetables

It's Spring Time!

I absolutely love spring!  Flowers are blooming, gardens get planted and that means fresh veggies and canning season right around the corner.

I can't wait until the produce I have on my window ledge actually comes from my garden!

We are getting our garden beds ready to plant.  I am glad that I have held off because we have had some hard freezes still yet in our area.  However I believe that we are ready to go ahead and plant some veggies.

In the past we have always tilled a big 40 foot by 60 foot plot and planted, but we had so much rain last year, that nothing grew, except a pond of course! ;-)  That is when we decided to make raised garden beds (you can read about how we made them HERE).  This year there isn't much to do to get them ready except add a little soil.  And the exciting thing is that while we did have to buy some soil this year, next year we won't have to.  We should have enough compost to add to our garden beds, and after all that is what we are striving to do, to become self-sufficient.

So I thought I would share some pictures with you about how we are getting ready on the farm for our garden.  The pictures below only show one of our garden beds.  We currently have three and will be adding more this summer.

Adding the soil

I can't stress how important it is to let your kids help with the gardening.  We have to teach our younger generation where food comes from, good nutrition from fresh veggies, and how they can feed themselves as they get older.  I am so glad to see that gardening and canning are making a comeback, because it is an art that should never be lost!

But Mom, we have to spread the dirt around with our hands!

I can't blame them, I love getting my hands and bare feet in fresh soil.  There is nothing that feels better.  The soil we bought did end up with a lot of clumps, so getting them out was a job that my kids loved!

Why, yes! That is a poodle skirt she is wearing to garden. :-)

Here they are leveling out the soil.  Next come the seeds.  My dear friend Amy gave me some wonderful seeds that she had and wasn't going to use.  It was like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped up into one looking through those seed packets.  I was trying to figure out which ones to plant, there were just so many to choose from!

Some of the seeds I will plant.

I have not had good luck with carrots in the past, but each year I keep trying and I am bound and determined to grow some, someday.  I really think our soil is just too rocky, but hopefully with the raised beds, that will help the situation.

I also thought I would share a couple of pictures that to me mean springtime.

Our forsythia bush

Growing up we always had forsythias.  I love their yellow flowers in the spring and lush green leaves in the summer.  They are almost always the first thing to bloom letting us know that spring is almost here.  I planted this little guy from a small start about 4 years ago.  It is slow growing, but it is growing and each year, I get more and more blooms.  I just love it!

Dogwood bloom

This is one of those pictures that I didn't think was going to turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised. Dogwoods are another one that signifies the start of spring to me.  I have tried to grow dogwood trees in my yard, but they don't make it.  They need cover, which is why they grow in wooded areas so well. They love the cover of the taller trees.  I hope someday to have a pink dogwood tree near my house that I can enjoy.

So how are your plants blooming?  Do you have a favorite spring flower or tree?  Let me know in the comments below!

Leave a Comment flowers, gardening, planting, raised beds, spring time