Our Garden

     It's getting to be mid-June and our garden is flourishing, to say the least. We have been so blessed by the growth and produce that we've gotten so far. Not to mention the pure enjoyment of going out to the garden daily to see what has grown and how many veggies are waiting to ripen.

     Dalton is really excited and having fun with the garden this year. I think he checks on it more than I do. Most of all, God has helped us out, sending rain to help the plants, and not sending 100 degree days yet!

     Before I show you pictures of the garden now, I'd like to show a few of 'in the beginning' to give a little perspective. Maybe you'll be as excited about the magic of growth as I am. It's in my genes...my PaPaw's garden would put ours to shame; he's so good.

 Tomato 

 Cute little new plants

Notice the small tomato plants in the cages

     Now that we've recapped the starting stages, here is what the garden looks like now.

 Tomatos to the right, peas to the left

 All of the vines on the right are squash, crookneck, spaghetti, butternut

 Tomato plants; remember how tiny they started out? Amazing!!

Watering the garden..Cooper likes to garden shoeless and pantsless

     Wow, right? Yes, Wow! It's so neat how it's just grown and grown, and all of the veggies on the plants...woo hoo!

     Dalton picked a big bowl of green beans a few weeks ago and when he came in his first words were "God is good." (We may be watching too much Little House on the Prairie). Since then we've picked a couple more big bowls and have frozen about 10 bags of green beans. This week the peas should be ready. It's work picking and snapping and cooking and freezing the produce, but so worth it. And nothing is better than knowing that the food on your table is home grown.

Blooming and growing peas

     We have also gotten some fresh tomatoes from the garden. They are amazing and taste nothing like those from the store. If we get a bunch of tomatoes at once, we hope to try and can them. That will be another adventure and post in itself!

     Speaking of much produce at once, we have squash and zucchini in abundance (I wanted to say coming out our ears but that phrase is overused). I've now made sauteed squash, baked squash, grilled squash/zucchini, zucchini fritters, zucchini bread and next I'm going to try veggie lasagna (with added sausage..we can't have a meal without meat, remember). I'm definitely expanding my recipe resume.

    Last but not least, we have a lot of cantaloupe that will be ready soon. Dalton counted 30! Last year we made about 8 and they were delicious, so if these are the same we'll be in cantaloupe heaven. It may be time to set up a roadside stand with veggies, cantaloupe and eggs...then again maybe not.

   Dalton is so ready to pick one; it's just eating him up that we have to wait. He's like a kid at Christmas. (He may be getting seeds for Christmas this year)

Gus: "I sure would like to dig in that cool, wet dirt." 

    So, that is our garden update. It's so fun and a source of joy and entertainment for us...which is good because way out here we don't have too many of those. Next post I'll introduce you to our milk cow, Josie. Just kidding..I have to keep some reason to go into town!

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."  Ephesians 3:20-21