Gardening rocks

Gardening is really starting to grow on me (pun intended ;) Let's see, I have peas coming in - not quite as fast as I want, I may have to plant more next year. Strawberries are just starting - thanks to the Weibers for the plants they gave us last year, which each have about a dozen berries or more this year! The tomatoes are starting to have little green fruits. We have a couple tiny jalepeno peppers growing. I finally got some lettuce to grow, and just planted some more lettuce seeds - which look like they are sprouting as well! Lots of green onions, too, and a few rainbow chard plants are doing quite nice. I threw in a couple of squash, but am not sure yet how they are taking to their new home.

Next year I definitely want to do more with growing food. I'm going to try and track down some blueberries this autumn for our apparently wet and acidic soil, and have some landscaping plans that will greatly increase the amount of fertile earth for growing yummy stuff. I even found a possible filler material: Yard waste! We have tons of yard waste from weeds I've pulled out, and then we can spend just for the nice soil we'll need on top. The yard waste will probably settle over time and we'll need to add more dirt, but that's okay.

Landscaping plans include breaking down the linings for our emptied fish ponds and turning those into a garden (the big one) and a sand box (the small-but-deep one). I also have big plans for the front yard, but need a little time to polish those off - but part of them is a large strawberry patch. I love strawberries! The back corner area apparently gets pretty good sun, and so I want to put some raised beds in there as well. Plus I'm hoping to cover up all those weeds . . . that place is truly infested! I also want to dig a moat around the table in our yard (which floods in winter right now), and move it to make enough room for a campfire area so we can have cookouts in our own yard. However, I know I'll be happy to just get one or two of these big projects done in the next year or so. Some smaller plans are making some nets out of twine for peas and beans to grow up, starting some seedlings in egg cartons next year (we have lots of those!), setting up more of the pots we got with the house with good dirt (and no weeds) and using them for food, and getting more of the seeds that did well this year and planting even more of them next year.

If I get to stay home or go back to school anytime soon (possibilities for when my contract ends next March), then I want to also get some egg-laying chickens. It'll only take a little work to turn part of our shed into a chicken run - just a little chicken wire, and knocking out one wall to give access to an outdoors area. But I'm not going to try and care for chickens as long as I'm also working full-time.