I am barn hopping again today. I think I have said it before, I really like the barn hop and getting to see what other homesteaders are doing. Such fun. Today, I want to focus on my garden..... If you have read around here very long, you know that gardening and preserving the harvest are my passions. I love the garden!! 
I love the squash and tomato blooms. They just make you happy.
I love the squash and tomato blooms. They just make you happy.
I also love a prolific bounty. 
If the Lord wills it, my garden table will look like this in July. I will have tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, etc. coming out of my ears. There will be 5 gal. buckets of fresh produce everywhere. Oh, I love it......
But for now we are still ordering seeds and planning. A good garden needs lots of planning!
(This is last year's bounty) We already have green beans and onions growing in our raised bed garden. However, Mr. Larry, our very dependable neighbor, comes over every spring and tills my main garden with his tractor. We do not have a tractor with all of the implements and he does. He also loves to be on his tractor. So it's a win, win, situation. We use to till up the spot with a garden tiller. It would take days of back breaking work. Now, Mr. Larry comes down for about an hour a couple of times and we are ready to start planting. He has come and done the breaking up part. So in a couple of weeks he will come back to till and row it up. I can't wait!!
Until then, we will plan. Here is what my 2011 garden plan looks like:
Tomatoes (about 60 plants) I love celebrity but will throw in a few others, as well.
Cucumbers I put up 30 jars of pickles last year and that wasn't enough. I am shooting for 50.
Yellow Squash
Zuchinni
Cow Peas
Green Beans
Onions (red)
Eggplant
Okra
Peppers
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Honey Dew Melon
Pumpkins
Gourds
Zinnias (We planted these last year and they were so amazing!!)
Marigolds (around my tomatoes)
Sunflowers
Catmint (I am planting this to ward off squash bugs. Here's a great article.)
This year I am planning to plant more heirloom varieties, as I want to save more seed this year. Here are some great companies to order seed from:
Oh, and as a side note, Herrick Kimball, has a new blog Agrarian Nation. It is just as good as all of his other writings, go check it out.
8 comments:
So very exciting! I did not now about the catmint around the squash! Thanks for that great tip!
I followed the barn hop and found your blog. I am equally excited about this year's garden and your pictures inspired me.
It is my first year as a stay at home mom and I am loving the fact that I will have time to focus on the garden instead of getting home at 6 pm and having it be an after thought!
Yummy! This sounds great! I am a newbie to the preserving part but greatly enjoyed what I got to do last year. I look forward to more this year.
You garden plan sounds wonderful! I too am planting mostly heirlooms this year. I ordered mine from Southern Exposure and Seed Exchange out of Virginia.
Oh my word..just reading your planting list makes my heart swell..I grew up in a family where everyone had a garden and one of my fondest memories is picking all the great produce and seeing mama can and freeze it...my Maw Smith always planted zinnas down the side of her garden...and every year my Uncle Lonnie would bring us a truckload of Silver Queen corn from his fields and mama would cut it on the old corn cutter and put up over 200 quarts of some of the thickest best tasting cream corn ever in the freezer...and there is nothing like green beans that have been canned in an old canner and seing all those gorgeous glass jars lined up on the shelves and tomatoe sandwiches!!! Oh my word I love fresh tomatoes and fried squash and friend okra....girl I go to the farmers market and just almost cry I get so happy looking at all that home grown stuff...what a blessing in this day and time to actually touch the dirt and grow something so good with your own hands..if I was your neighbor I'd love to sit on the porch and shell peas with you....may your garden give you a double portion of bounty this year sweet friend.....Picket
I just discovered your blog and have been reading all of your back posts. I am always thrilled to find another Mississippi blogger! I am excited about planting some of my catmint next to the squash, I always have squash bugs! In one of your older posts you were wondering what kind of lilly you had, it is a milk and wine lilly-very old heirloom plant. I noticed you went to the Lena fireworks-I live close to Lena. I am now following-stop by and visit me.
Love it! Just wanted to stop by and say I had another surgery I am recovering from, and I may host the next Tea Luncheon at the Old Bilbro store. We have bought it and working on getting it open in a few weeks, the Cafe/Store. I have another huge room, I want to make a Tea Room in, later this summer. Sept is usually a good month for our Tea as people are not on holidays, or vacations. I will let you know.
I too love a prolific bounty. I hope I get one this year. How many plants do you typically plant?
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