Inch by Inch, Row by Row

Well, it is growing time here on the farm. Last year, growing a garden was quite the disappointing endeavor. I came home one day from running errands, and to my surprise, I returned to find Matt had tilled the entire front lawn. As he sat there on his tractor, with that handsome smile of his, I thought with a chuckle "oh my, what has he done" while he was putting up and down each row. Although it was a shock at first, it really was the perfect place to start a garden of the magnitude that we were looking to grow. So, we got to it and planted tray after tray of seeds that went in the mini-greenhouse to germinate and grow...and there they sat. We had a dream, but not all dreams come true. An amazing 250 year old colonial farmhouse came up for sale down the street from us. It was beautiful. Well, to the right eyes it was beautiful. It was in need of complete renovation and was filled to the brim with trash, but to us, it was a hidden gem. Our realtor told us if we were to sell our home to purchase the colonial, we would have to regrow the lawn. So ,we reseeded the entire thing and the poor baby seedlings just sat. We didn't want to start a garden somewhere else in our yard and have to leave it when we moved. Wow, what a beautiful lawn we grew out there. It was the nicest lawn we'd had in all our years living here. It would all be worth it right? The house buying process should be fast and simple, right? Did you chuckle there a little? Me too! After eight months and lots of time, effort tears and emotions (I was pregnant, what can I say) , long story short, we decided to walk away from the house.

So, now on to this year. We were determined to get this garden going. We figured that the best way to have a large garden (about 60 x 40 feet) was to start early. We decided to build a greenhouse to allow all of our tiny seedlings the best chance to grow big and strong. Matt got right to work. He engineered a hoop house, after some research we had done online, from PVC tubing and we ordered some greenhouse film. We were able to get it put up and were just starting to install the channels that were to hold the film in place. We were in the process of installing them and there was a disaster. We had a huge storm packing gusty winds and torrential rain. Unfortunately, the film was not tight enough yet without the channels and the rain pooled between the supports. This caused catastrophic failure. The PVC connectors snapped under the pressure and the entire house collapsed. We tried to use the film and some tables to save the trays but only a few ended up sprouting. (Stay tuned for a blog about the trials and tribulations of building, failing and then rebuilding a greenhouse.)

After the greenhouse fiasco we had to quickly move onto the next idea. It was now warmer out and the threat of frost was beyond us. We decided direct sowing into the beds that Matt had made were our best bet. The whole family got together to get this plan into action. All of the kids came out to help, even the baby joined in her carrier. The kids took turns with each row, one poking the holes for the seeds, one placing the seeds into the hole, another covering them up, and of course one taking a break. lol. They always want a break. It took over 4 hours but we got it all sowed. We planted corn, green beans, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, onions, celery, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, ,spinach, lettuce, bell peppers, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, watermelon, pumpkins, and two kinds of cabbage. We will plant potatoes in boxes outside the garden. We might have gotten to a late start, but everything has sprouted (except the carrots and celery) and are looking great. The next step will be to get out there and thin the plants. When planting, you put more than one seed in each hole and then go through after to thin. You keep only the strongest plant from each spot and pluck out the smaller one. Matt even designed a watering system because we have found that watering is the hardest part when trying to maintain a garden. We will write more and explain this process in a future post. See below for some pictures of how things are goings so far, and stay tuned for updates as the season moves along. Happy growing!