Growing up....

While this could definitely mean our little people, like this little bean sprout who was 11 months yesterday,

but it actually refers to the garden that we are growing this year.

I don't know if you guys have noticed but the grocery store is getting very very expensive even for the most fundamental things, so we decided to cut back and cut out the middle man where we could.  We tried a garden a dew years ago and we didn't do very well.  The spot was bad, not enough sunlight and way to far from the house to be practical, it was a dismal failure.  However, now that our family has grown and the belt has been sucked in so much its about to cut us in half we need to think outside of the box and this year that meant a garden.

So we picked a good spot close to the house and got started.  Jon even came around to my idea of some raised beds and I couldn't be happier.

This is the start of our little project.  The soil looks beautiful and we even put in some manure although my lovely husband laughed at me for buying cow poo.  He won't be laughing when my plants are bursting with veggies.  The marigolds look pretty but they also keep the bugs down.

Now we don't own a tiller and the ground in this spot had not been worked so  we had to figure something out.  Jon remembered that he had an old mule plow that he found hanging in the shop so he welded a trailer hitch on it and hooked it to the back of the Honda and TADA....21st century plow.  It worked perfectly, although Jon was about to get an earful if I heard "Ha Mule" one more time!

Boogie even got into the spirit of things, and wanted to give it a try, but the plow was a little heavy so she just watched.

Until the sprinkler was created that is.  Jon was trying to figure out how to evenly water the garden when he came up with a great idea....a long pipe with holes in it. LOL!!  Seriously, this is an old top pole for a chain link fence that Jon welded uprights on, then he sliced slits at intervals down the length of the pole, and attached a hose to the end.  Once the water fills the pipe it is a fabulous sprinkler and covers the entire garden.  Boogie loved it so much she has ordered a smaller one for the front yard so that she and Addy and our neighbors can play in it this summer. 

The other idea that we created for the girls is the bean tee pee.  Pulled this idea off of Pintrest (thank you Pintrest).  We'll have a great crop of beans, pink eyed purple hulls to be exact and the girls will have a fun place to play this summer while we work in the garden.

This is the overall view of our garden from the top of the hill.  Everything is planted and ready to go, now we just wait to see what pops up.  In this part of the garden we have:

Pink eyed purple hulls (Cowpeas)

Watermelon

Yellow Squash

Cucumbers

Two types of carrots (short and long)

A heat tolerant lettuce mixture

Lima beans (under the sprinkler)

Scallions

Red Onions

Snap Beans

Mammoth Sunflowers

On the fence we are growing

Blackberries and Rasberries

These are the raised beds that Jon made me from the pallet timbers that we had laying around.  I had to beg and plead, but he finally made them for me, and now agrees that they look great.  The bed above has two types of tomatoes and bell peppers in it.

This bed has strawberries and some herbs, rosemary, basil and thyme. Mmmmmmm

Last but not least are our blueberry  bushes.  Right now we have two but we need to pick up one more.  My girls are blueberry monsters, so it seemed more economical to grow our own.  So far so good.

The only thing that we have left to plant is corn.  It is going on a plot all by itself on the other side of the yard.  Once it is in we are all set to grow or fruits and veggies.  The girls are excited which makes me excited, plus what a sense of accomplishment to put fruits and veggies on your table that you have provided all on  your own.

I'll post pictures every couple of weeks so that you can see how we're doing.  Cross your fingers that we have a good yield as I am also going to try my hand at canning.  Might need prayers for that endeavor, but you don't know if you can do it until you try.