Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Roots in the ground

Once the plants are in the ground I like to think the root can go for miles and miles with all the love and care given to them and nothing to stop them but maybe a rock here and there... Grow babies Grow!

I think my sister in law said it best, that this was better then Christmas! We have been plotting and planning the garden since then end of last year... and here it was the big weekend the day to REALLY break ground and get our baby plants and seed in to their final resting places for the year! We gathered all together on Friday, this was step one moving the horse fence back. Well with about 5-7 people helping out the task didn't take as long as we had expected. Rewarding our selves we went swimming, ate pizza, had a few beers and relaxed before the hard work. The next morning we got started at our normal time.. early.. lets say about 10 am?!?! :)




First shot of the day... gathering and getting instruction.. Now keep in mind during the next 3 days we are working with 9 adults, 8 kids and sometimes up to 11 dogs!







Evelyn.. as wonderful and amazing as she is... headed up the project. She designed what the lay out of the garden would be. Evelyn was super organized and had large white envelopes separated in to sections of the garden and even subsections. Meaning she gave great instruction that in my opinion was fool proof. Dianna, Evelyn's 21 yr old daughter and I teamed up.. Let's call us team blue. Evelyn and whom ever she works with (as versatile as she can be) will be team orange and cousin's Shana and husband Travis will be team green (for their amazing green thumbs!).. Let's give Aunt Jo and Uncle Steve the team name yellow for their amazing rays of sunshine they bring to us...  Almost for got Jake and Jeremy were floaters, alternating and helping with each team.. so let's give the floaters and team name.. team beer..

Team Yellow:





Here we have Uncle Steve working on some sort of project my dear hubby gave to him. And Mr.s wonderful herself, Aunt Jo is manning the camera for me today so she is behind this picture :)







Team Beer:


Jake (Evelyn's wonderful husband) and Jeremy (my wonderful husband) started re-tilling the garden areas we were working with for like millionth time...


Team Blue:




Dianna and I took on our first task.. Carrots and Beets! Here we are hoe-ing around.. ha ha.. been waiting on a joke with hoes! Ok enough enough.. so we planted 2 rows of carrots and 2 rows of beets in this area, followed later by a row of radishes (see, we ran out of radish room in the radish area)








And yes folks this is really me.. I am not always behind the camera.. I do get down and dirty with the girls! A lot of hard work.. but oh so much fun!







Team Orange:
Here is my beautiful SIL, Evelyn, Team orange at work! Using her super amazing powers, she is measuring out where the brussel sprouts will live...






After planting the brussel sprouts, she gave them some support by pounding in sticks by each plant.. by doing so the tops of the sticks look like flowers.. awww how precious!




Team Green:



Wow, not enough amazing things to say about these two kiddos! Shana and Travis, My husbands cousin and her husband, are here starting the daunting task of planting the peas. they went all around the front side of the front garden, planting peas along the fence. HA! Also in the picture you have our fabulous neighbor looking on and the progress and Tripp, my oldest son, waiting on his next task...







Team Orange.. remember what i said Evelyn and whom ever is working with her is team orange, started the long task of planting tomatoes. Jake is digging holes while Ev is filling them with a tomato variety..








The sprinkler system being put in and tested.. What amazing men we have married or who have join the Nordlund family.. They came up with and tested and amazing irrigation system with minimal monies for now.. :)





Well, there they are are.. the kids! all 9 of them at this point huddled together, I suppose working out the rules of a game they are playing! They work so well with each other even the little guys and gal do too!




After a wonderful start our day ran out of day light so it was time to relax.. and relax we did with a good ol' bonfire and stories!



Somehow we talked about and thought there was to be a lunar eclipse.. regardless the moon was beautiful! I was able to capture a few good pictures of the moon and I wanted to share the one I loved the most...




And then... our beautiful evening was placed on hold  as one of the 5 horses thought it would be fun to run through the electric fence.. and then the other 4 slowly joined her/him.. lol so needless to say we had some fun and laughs trying to coral the horses with our other neighbors!




Day 2:

Now on this day and the last day I was only able to help out for a little while, I had to work at my actual job :) so most of these pictures are of the garden space and of what I could get of the fam before high tailing to work...



It may be hard to see.. I tried to find an ok color to label the garden but I was having terrible luck with the photo program. Anyways, in the 3 above pictures I tried to label what I could remember of what is in the garden so far....

Team Orange:






Tripp helping Ev gather fence post for their first task...











Placing the outer fencing along the back side of the back garden..







Team Green:



Shana and Travis planting.. Beans I do believe. They did pick up an extra team mate for this project.. Emma. It was the cutest thing ever!! Emma would follow Travis like a baby duckling doing exactly what her asked her to do.. here they are placing seeds in the dirt together...









Here I believe Travis and Emma were "stomping" down the rows in between the beans, while Shana covered the actual beans...







And Finally Day 3:

Evelyn, the amazing woman she is.. finish off the planting as I yet again had to run off to work. The big boys (aka Jake and Jeremy) took the opportunity to have brother time in the middle of a lake on a boat.. fishing.  So here are the final picture that I was able to take before I yet again left :(

















I will try and post a final picture that my beautiful hubby says he wants to take.. which would mean him getting on the roof and take a "big" picture.. we will see! Also, during all this gardening fun, some of the men (Travis and Jeremy) worked on cousin's van, redoing the brakes. My wonderful, Mr. Fix-it-all broke his baby finger.. I mean BROKE.. sigh good thing I know first aid.. :) and if my wonderful followers would keep Aunt Jo in their thoughts.. Even with all the amazingness she is filled with, she was bit by and deer tick and is not being treated for lime disease! We love you Aunt Jo.. PLEASE feel better soon! <3

Well I am off for now, house duties call I do plan on doing a weekly update with photo's on Monday's (pictures taken on Sunday's).. Come back and visit for the updates from our first family garden!

<3 T

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Dig up, till up... a garden

Mother nature decided to give us an amazing winter.. even extending it out into spring.. almost summer! SO, needless to say I started something too early and my fingers and toes are itching to be in the dirt! We decided to start tilling up the area on Mother's Day weekend. The men started on Friday evening disc-ing the garden. On Saturday 5/11/13, it was time... time for all of us to get dirty!...



The men of our group got started right where they left off.. Disc-ing and tilling! Now let me tell you despite how the pictures looks.. it was COLD and sleeting on us the whole time we were working on the garden that day.













Even the dogs were ALL there trying to help.. get in the way... when they could!











Jeremy, showing off his mad tilling skills.. aka.. making sure the tiller doesn't go air borne between the hard and soft ground! Proud of that man!









The kids even came out to help... well ok they just stood around and played with the garden toys.. er.. I mean tools..









After the lovely men of the family tried desperately to disc the front half of the garden, they realized that the ground just wasn't quiet right.. on to plan B.. using the ground on the other side of the fence. To work they went disc-ing, then moving the grass... then you guessed it tilling!










Priceless!... Hayden watching daddy from the back side of the compost bin... And daddy waving!










While boys will be boys and play with their toys (poet.. I know!!  lol) My favorite sister-in-law builds our raised bed boxes..












Uncle Jake, teaching the kids about tractors... ok maybe it is Uncle Jake be pounded with 1 million and 1 questions about the tractors and "whatcha doin'"...









Oh wait what's this I see?!?! Our cavalry coming with horse manure... and wait what?!?! a manure spreader! Wow... This ought be good!






The look of heroes!! Yes.. Garden Warriors... Crap spreading heroes!!!


SO, this will be my first attempt at a video on the blog! I hope it works! So worth the laugh! I warned you earlier the ought be good... oh it's great!!

All in all the garden now measures out about around 6500 sq ft. I say around cause I don't the exact amount only figures :) We.. ok mostly Evelyn and the men did a lot of hard work! with a well deserved dinner after wards...

That's right steak and potatoes baby! Which the baked potatoes will be on the Pin There, Tried That blog soon! To end the night we were entertained by our very own dog whisper! Yes Evelyn!




That's right 6 dogs! all patiently waiting their treat and not one single fight! Dogs clockwise from Evelyn: Turk, Macy (behind Ruby), Ruby, Jack the red headed step dog, Freya and Sun Dog! What a bunch!





Next, Potatoes... we planted potatoes on 5/15/2013 and plan on planting the rest this weekend 5/24-5/26! Can't wait to share the progress with all of you!

I leave you now with the garden, pre planted:










Yayy!!Bonus! You get a horse int he garden.. one that even rolls around! Love this place! Garden done, sitting out side enjoying all the hard work, listening to the frogs croaking in the pond.. and Junior... A big brown amazing horse for entertainment! and FYI.. Jeremy is not a horse whisper! :) but it was fun to watch him try! Love my Minnesotan farmboy!

Go play in the dirt and see what you can make grow!

<3 T

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

It starts with some seeds, and love

On this first blog it will be mainly pictures and comments of what we have done since square one..YES all the way back to February. I know now that February is a little to early to seed.. however this is a whole new learning process for me.. and SO much fun! Let's get started shall we...

February 2013:

These are seeds I saved and let dry from a store bought red pepper. I took a wet paper towel and lined some seeds in the paper towel and placed that inside of a Ziploc baggie with the date started written on it. After about 6-10 days the seeds all had roots on them. Confession. I did try the pin, egg carton seed starter, with no success.. The egg carton got to wet, probably due to my heavy hand of watering. Now, with the red pepper plants I did end up with 72 started plants, 60 I seeded first on a paper towel, and 12 that I stuck in the soil pod to seed on their own.








This is a picture of all the soil pods filled and ready to go...










This was about 10 days after they were planted in the pods.. Now out of all 72, I kept out the 7 best, from those 7 I do believe that 5 made it nice and strong, they are waiting to dip their roots in to the fresh soil, this weekend 5/25/13!




Here is where the red pepper plants are today 5/21/13...

I am not sure if the little two will make it so I am not counting them in the final 5...

I have to pause for a moment to say I have the best husband ever! He saw me struggling to get these plants in windows where I could, so he built me shelves..







Perfect place right over the sink for the herbs to go! (Notice the snow outside the window?!?!)










I will say out of my big herb box, I planted Basil, Oregano, Parsley and Thyme... The Basil and the Parsley are the things to grow... I will take what I can get!







Both the Basil and Parsley were planted mid February. They grew.. then some died, then grew some more.. I have since been able to prune the basil once and the parsley twice, here is where they are at on 5/21/13...


Also, started in February was some Cilantro and Chive... God love my cat, he fits his name to a "t".. Captain Snowball Johnson.. Well, being curious like cats are, dumped over the chive pot 3 separate times.. I told me self "NO way will anything grew in there" but I trusted and gave it a few weeks...



Got to love the great photography with the phone camera...

Chive 3/2013










And yet another great photo!!


Cilantro 3/2013







Now, both of these plants have been pruned about 3 times now, Cilantro and Chive 5/21/2013..








Cilantro

















                                                                        Chive









I can't say I have done anything special with these. I watered them every Tuesday and sprayed them with Epsom salt and water every Wednesday. Once a week I did use some Miracle grow, but stopped after 3 application  The plants started to look as if they were being chemically burned. I did eventually stop the Epsom salt and water apps weekly as well. The leaves on the plants started to get a film of salt on them. However the Epsom water was to keep bugs off, and I will say it did work. We got what seemed like an infestation of tiny little Nat type bugs. the Epsom water did keep them down on the plants them selves! Follow this LINK...

Ok on to the next blog page, the tilling and other shenanigans!

<3 T