Garden Planted... Mostly

So today was planting day in my garden. Yesterday I was able to get everything limed and tilled (having a tiller that attaches to the tractor is a serious blessing!) and so all was ready for me to start planting when I got to the garden today.

When I first got there storms were all around. I had passed through a couple significant rain showers on the way to the garden. I was praying back the rain as hard as I could! God heard my prayers and had mercy on me and allowed me to get everything planted before the rain came back. He is so good to me! (My poor Grandmother still hasn't been able to beat the rain and get her garden planted. Mom and Dad went to help her yesterday but it rained all night. I'm going to have to do some prayer for her! Maybe if we link up we can get it dried out enough!) It was a long day, and I'm quite tired now.

The garden this year is quite expanded from last year's model. I have probably added about 50% more area to it. That has allowed me to plant more stuff! I'm not sure how I am going to keep up with all of it and process it all when harvest time comes, but that is beside the point.

So this year I have broccoli, onions, green peas, purplehull peas, cantaloupe, watermelon, cucumbers, baby lima beans, fordhook lima beans, green beens, straight neck squash, zucchini, cilantro, basil, dill, okra, a least 10 varieties of tomatoes, sweet banana peppers, and bell peppers. I was thinking about getting some blackeye peas to plant, but I think I'm going to pass on it. Do I really want something else to have to pick and process? I also toyed with the idea of doing some potatoes or sweet potatoes, but I come back to the same thing. Is it really worth it? I don't know. The insanity may have not left me yet. If I can find some white sweet potatoes to start I may very well go over the edge. I am also planning to plant some corn a little later when my onions are closer to being done.

I need to do some fine weeding in the onions and also pull the dirt away from them so that they can grow. I figure that it will probably be a painful afternoon on my knees in and amongst the rocks. Not really looking forward to it to be honest. (I pulled a rock out today that was almost the size of a shoebox!) I also need to start getting trellises set up so that my peas, cucumbers and green beans have something to run on. Most everything needs fertilizer too. I need to stake the tomatoes, and I need to put the irrigation lines out. I'll probably need to buy more. We barely had enough last year. There will probably be repairs that need to be made too. I'm wondering if the sprinkler heads may not be more efficient this year than the soaker hoses. For the time involved and the expense it may well be cheaper. It may also make weeding easier.

Anyway it is late and I'm tired so I'm going to call it a night. I'll try to get you some pictures soon. It is starting to look pretty good!