I love spring. Now that the frosts are done and the rain has subsided for a few days, it’s time to get the garden going in full swing. Since the frosts look like they are done for the season and the rain has turned off, for now, we’ve been hustling to get many more of our garden planted.
Garden Update
We planted bush beans, Cherokee Trail of Tears pole beans, sweet potato plants, zucchini squash, sunflowers, and okra and have more to grow in the garden beds.
The idea of digging ditches and filling them with sawdust seems to be working for the tomato plants that we planted next to the fence we are using for their vertical supports. One of the things that I did this year which is a no-no when it comes to clay soil like ours is that if you work it when it is wet like it has been, it tends to clump up into bricks that are impenetrable. Therefore, when I was working this soil this past week, it was hard to do. However, by wetting the soil some of the soil became workable, and I was easily able to break up what had been bricks with my potato hook.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, be sure not to use too much water. Let the water soak into the clods for a few minutes before trying to work them. If it doesn’t work, use a little more water. Too much water is used on the clods, and you’ll be back where you started. Last year I did something similar in that I waited until the next rain before I tried to work the ground again. It worked too.
A lot of the garden is up, but the rain did cause some plants to drown. We had to replant the potatoes that we planted in the ditch, and I replanted some of the corn and still have more that I need to fill in.
The early salad green garden includes onions, lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots, and other greens. Our pepper and tomato beds are doing amazingly well. We have many sweet peppers already set on the plants and hope to get some peppers before the end of the month. Not bad for May in the Ozarks!
I have been thinking about starting a gardening book specifically for the Ozarks.
Baby Critters!
On Mother’s Day, our cat had her second kitten in five years. The kitten is a beautiful little Calico. She had the first on Christmas Day a year and a half ago. I’m wondering if these kittens weren’t gifts to me for those holidays!
We also have a chicken who has gone broody and is setting on eggs. She seems determined to get herself a little flock of chicks. We’ll see how many she hatches out if any. A couple of weeks ago, we sold several roosters and we have one left. There’s a good chance that some of these eggs will produce a rooster or two or more. More on this later.
The Perpetual Homesteader 