Garden pictures

 March 15th was the last average freeze date for our area, which means that I have been spending even more time in the garden. In the last 3 days I have started putting all of the warm weather crops in. First I put in tomatoes and peppers.

Small Red Cherry tomato plant

Beefsteak and Roma tomatoes

 Next I hilled up the potatoes.

They are growing so well

 The zucchini and straight neck squash need their trellises, that's on the list for tomorrow.

Zucchini

Yellow straight neck squash

 The asparagus is finally growing, I was a little bit worried about it.

Asparagus makes me happy

 Mike planted the sweet corn. He insisted on Silver Queen, because that's what they grew when he was a kid. I'm just thrilled with the idea of fresh sweet corn, so I let him have his way.

Corn, with potatoes, onions and garlic in the background

 We also planted the watermelons, acorn queen winter squash, jack-o-lantern pumpkins, and sugarpie pumpkins. All together there are 30 hills.

Squash and melons

 In the herb bed I have parsley, leaf celery, cilantro, basil, chives, sweet marjoram, dill, mint, tarragon, and a tomatillos along with the cherry tomato I planted a couple of weeks ago.

Apple mint, thanks to Kirk who sent me some root cuttings

Basil

Tarragon

Parsley

Sweet Marjoram

Cilantro

Leaf celery

My cherry tomato is growing like crazy

Dill

Tomatillo 

We planted lots of other things that I didn't get pictures of: okra, collards, swiss chard, bush beans, the last of the broccoli, and eggplant. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but that's most of it.

Other than working on the garden we made a run to the feed store, where I got a new gardening hat. I don't usually wear hats, because I can't fit all of my hair up under them, but I hate sunscreen and I'm tired of my nose being sunburned.

My goofy hat, I untied the bow under my chin for the picture

 We also got new breeding stock for our meat rabbits. Since they won't be food I let the twins name them.

Our new Californian buck, Easter Bunny (EB for short)

Our New Zealand/Satin doe, Sweetie Pie

 The first thing Sweetie Pie did was scratch me. I used to think that bunnies were so cute, I don't anymore.

Every time I try to hold a bunny, I bleed

 Mike brought me home a present on Friday that I've been wanting for ages. A garden fork! It may not seem like a good present...unless you're a gardener. If you are a gardener, you know that it's an invaluable tool. I'm so happy with it.

My fork

  Here is a full view of the garden, as of this afternoon.

 Since I've been spending so much time outside I've had lots of chances to get pictures of the animals.

Our young rooster, Pipsqueak will be going to one of my Mom's friends soon

Since I plan on cutting this small oak down anyway I let the goats munch on it all they want

Oak trees are their favorite food

Coco was scratching her head on this pot

They look dead, but they're just taking a dust bath

 I've also been able to watch all of the wildflowers start blooming. We probably have 4 acres of wild mustard and another acre of bluebonnets, along with smaller patches of indian paintbrush, western primrose, wild sweet peas, and more that I don't know the names of.

Wild sweet peas among the mustard

I don't know what this is, but it smells amazing

Indian paintbrush

Lily in the bluebonnets

Walking onions among the bluebonnets

Dewberries beginning to bloom

Huge patches of wild mustard

 And now a few pictures of the kids.

Aislyn loves to help me in the garden

Ian's getting so big

Lily loves her big brother, and Gabe loves his "Grandma kitty"

After a long day in the garden

Lily is so proud of her peas and garlic

And one last picture of the eggs I collected today. I got 11 from my 15 hens.

It's not just a hat, it's also an egg basket

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend. Blessed Be