TOMATOES, PEANUTS and PEPPERS GO IN!!

One of my favorite times of the gardening season is when we plant new tomato plants.  Each year it seems we learn something new...either we planted to tall, or we planted too early, or the plants weren't quite big enough...and more!  But regardless of the "mistakes" we learn from, the yield from the garden seems to always be really good!!  It must be due to all of the good people who come and help out in our garden!!  It is amazing to be part of such a wonderful thing!

This year, Star Nursery, on Dixie Drive, donated most of our tomato plants.  I LOVE going out to that Star Nursery, even though it's not quite as close as the one on Sunset.  I have bought all of my flowers there and love my bouganviea I plant in my front yard each year.  Soooo, go to Star Nursery...I HIGHLY recommend it!!  Our other great "supplier" is the Snow Canyon High School Ag Dept., headed up by Deric Despain.  The students plant some of my favorite varieties of tomatoes and peppers.  Their plants are BEAUTIFUL and they give us a GREAT discount on them!

Both peanut beds were planted with heirloom seeds.   The first year Kirklands Seed Company gave me some of their highly prized heirloom peanut seeds.  We loved growing them and they had amazing yields and were easy to grow.  The second year I asked for peanut seeds along with the other bulk seeds we were purchasing.  Jennifer was a bit surprised as she asked me, "Didn't you save any seed from last year's production?!?"  I was equally shocked saying that the thought had never crossed my mind.  I was given some more peanuts with the admonition that I would be expected to save enough to plant next time.  We have done so each year since then!

And we had some amazing peanut planters today!  Michelle, Arlene, Susan, and Tonya did a great job!!


 

Debbie Hafen did a great job of thinning the lettuce bed!
(Were those TEARS I saw in your eyes, Debbie??)

The beet beds got "thinned" today, too, but we won't be able to tell for awhile!

We LOVE these darling helpers!!

Alayna and her little brother were good "weeders!"

And now we just let the garden to all of the work...enjoy the sun and GROW!!!

We're ALL IN and Ready To Grow!!!

Our first planting of yellow squash and zucchini is UP!!!  One the BEST parts of gardening...seeing the first plants poking their heads through the soil!!  The beet beds are doing great, as well as the lettuce bed, and the peas!  All the other beds that were planted last week should be coming through fairly soon...as soon as we get past this last couple of "winter" days.

Thanks to Mike Smith, the last bed (our 2nd peanut bed) is ready to be planted!!  Hooray!

SEED PLANTING PARTY!!

What a great morning in the garden!!  So many helpers and lots of planting to be done!!  And it was all accomplished in ONE HOUR!!!  Way to go everyone!!

We planted carrots (Danvers and Imperator), cucumbers (Armenian and Cruncher Muncher), Squash (Calabcita, Zucchini, and Strait neck Yellow), onion seeds (Red Weaver), and reseeded the pea beds with  pre-sprouted seeds to help with the sparse germination that we had with the first planting.

In a couple of weeks we'll finish out all of the planting with tomato plants, pepper plants, and our peanut beds will be planted.

And another HUGE THANK YOU to Allied Waste for the BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING compost that they bring us.  Without it our garden would be NOTHING!!!  <3

WATER WORKS...OR NOT!!

With the hard winter freeze we've had to do quite a bit of repair work to the PVC lines, replacing, modifying, and getting new parts put on.  Sometimes it goes smoother than others...but we always have fun!!

 

 
 

2014 GARDENING. . . BRING IT ON!!!

On January 6th a young man started doing 50 hours worth of community service work in the garden.  It has been a huge blessing!!  He's moved all the PVC, raked out junk in the beds, wheel-barrowed manure into each bed (thanks to the GENEROUS donation from Allied Waste...we love the "black gold" compost they delivered!!), rototilled each bed, and then marked off each bed on the north side.  He did a great job and got his 50 hours done in record time, just before we did our first work party!!

 

On Friday, January 17, 2014, we had our first-of-the-year garden work-party.  We raked smooth the north beds, cleaned out walkways, pulled a few remaining weeds, and planted the two pea beds, and one bed with onion sets (200 total).  It was a great morning working together even though the 8:00 hour started out a bit chilly.  By 9:00 it was warming up and we had an enjoyable, productive time!  Thanks for the help!!