After last summer when my grandson and I were overwhelmed with tomatoes from plants he had gotten given to him we planted everyone bugged me all winter to grow a bigger garden this year and learn to can. It would be a "family" project they said, to which I was hoping they'd sort of forget about as those family projects usually don't end up being employed by everyone. There was a lot of personal stress going on within my son's family so early in the year he started bugging me to start digging for a garden. His girlfriend wanted him to "engage" more in family activities. Even though I had dug up the entire area just a couple years prior to lower the level of the dirt below the walk for better rain runoff and replanted with grass that was finally getting itself rooted good I handed him the shovel and told him he could dig it all up. That's about as far as it got, dug up into a big heap. It sat there for a couple weeks and I finally decided to have at it before my grand kids tomato plants got to big for their starter containers. There was a lot of sand there, dumped there from years of ordering sand for my kids to play in when they were little, that's probably what built the soil so high above the walk. Once I got it all leveled out I asked him if he'd go get the top soil to which he kept saying he would but never seemed to have the time. Buying it in a bulk load from a garden supply would have been cheaper not to mention a lot less work buying and hauling bags of top soil. I then had to dig each hole and mix it up good with the top soil before putting in the plants. This is what it looked like after I got done.
I really had my doubts being there was so much sand but a month later they are doing really well.
There are twenty one plants so I am going to be super overwhelmed. I also planted some brussels sprouts, green peppers and some assorted hot peppers. I had to move some of the hot peppers because a bug had taken a liking to them so I thought maybe I should try putting them near the other peppers as they were not having the same problem. The next day I look and that did not solve my problem as you can see from the picture if you look closely near the tag in the ground you can see they ate one right down to it's stem...
The green peppers and brussels sprouts aren't having the same issue....
Neither are any of the numerous...and there was a lot of them...red peppers my grand kids started though they are still relatively small.
Above them I have some garlic I planted and I hope I didn't plant it to late but I was sort of overwhelmed with the project plus managing to get in my flower beds. This year I decided to plant zinnia's once again. I use to plant them all the time in three flower beds I had in the front. They'd get so huge and beautiful I had several people over the years stop to take pictures up close of them. I don't know why I stopped really outside of maybe wanting something different. This year though with them closing down the nurseries I wasn't sure if they'd allow them back open in time so instead of putting the zinnia's I bought for three cents a pack at the end of last year in my wildflower bed I decided to plant them out front.
Some bug ate a few of them coming up so I had to plant more. I dusted them to keep the bugs off them. Once they get a couple inches above ground you look for a couple cool days coming up followed by some rain then transplant them a few inches apart. They now look like they are off to a healthy start. Once they bloom I will have to do a post to show some pictures of them. My dwarf sunflowers look to be having a great head start on everything else...but I did plant them first. After the daisies and black eyed Suzanne's fade out they start to bloom, there are also some giant sunflowers coming up pretty good behind them.
My grandson's pumpkins are doing great also. We put them in an old sandbox the kids don't use anymore.
I just thought I'd save me some time by not having to dig out a pumpkin patch. They will take over that entire area plus some when they really start getting big, you need a lot of space for pumpkins.
I built him a box for his strawberry plants, they were just in flower containers but were getting to big for them. I got the idea to built the box from a fellow who did a post here on hive.
This is what it looks like now filled. The sides went in a bit from the weight of all that dirt but it will still last him a good long time.
That is our bee bath sitting next to it and boy do the bees ever love that bath. That also was an idea given to me from someone on steemit awhile back and it has really helped sustain the bee population back into our area. Though I have to admit the lady two doors down who use to have her yard chemically sprayed all summer finally moved and the fact the college houses don't have flowers for competition probably helped a lot also.
My grand kids love pickles so I decided to buy a couple pickling cucumber plants this year. If it works out I think I will expand on it next year.
I also planted some green beans, they are starting to pop up through the ground. My plan is to take string and attach it to the trellis I have in the center and stake it outward so they can climb both the string and the trellis.
So I've been busy in my yard this year and I am still not done. I have two flower beds that still need cleaning out and new wood chips put in. Those plants are perennials that come up every year so I could save them for last as I got caught on up what became my family garden project.
