Our Hobby Farm

The Start of My Gorgeous & Fruitful Garden

I finally got the garden all planted… well, mostly.  All that will probably get done this year.  With Zach gone, it fell to me to be the Master Gardener around here.  I really should take a lesson from Lily (have you read her blog Bountiful Blessings yet?  if not, you should) and get my kids to work with me.  Justus & Audrey did for a while but I think it would be better if we did the whole garden all together.

I find the garden to be so soothing and I’m hoping it will be rewarding me with bushels of veggies in several weeks.

I picture something like Lily’s garden…

vegetable garden

 

or the Strite’s garden they have in their greenhouse…

greenhouse garden

Beautiful

greenhouse garden

but sadly, my garden may look like this… my dreams crushed once again in the burning deserts of Arizona where moisture amounts to about an 1/8″ each year. (factually it’s an average of 7″,which according to the website I was on, is the lowest amount of rainfall in the U.S.)

dilapidated garden

 

But! my fingers are crossed that this year will be different! I did see earthworms the other day, so that’s always a good sign,right? Big l—o—n—g ones that my little shovel unfortunately, cut in half. 🙁  Poor fellows, such a worm life.

Here’s my square foot garden whose potential is mostly under the soil at the moment, waiting to spring into life.  I did buy a few tomato and pepper plants and the leeks and onions are from previous years.  You may wonder what strange contraptions we have on our garden.  We had cages welded which we then covered with hog panel and chicken wire.  Each side opens independently of the other.  No rabbits, chickens, goats or birds can get in.  Drastic measures?  Maybe, but they work great.

square foot garden

Row cover on okra and corn seed which does not have a “ceiling” like the rest of the garden.

row cover on okra

We’ll be going on a trip, so I’m hoping it’s all growing like crazy when we get back.

The chicks we hatched are doing great.  They’ve adopted Peter the rabbit as their mother (or in this case their father).

chicks and rabbit

chicks and rabbit

We’ve got about 20 eggs in the incubator presently, so in about 3 weeks we’ll have more little peepers.

Anyone want some?

10 Comments

  • Martha Peterson

    I want some chickens!!! 😀 Sounds like you are doing better on your garden then I am on mine! I haven’t even gotten the beds filled yet, much less the deer/javelina/rabbit protection fence up. 🙁 Better late than never, right?

    • Elisabeth

      You’ve already put some hard work into your garden. Keep going at it; you’ll get it finished.

      So, how many chicks do you want and when? 😀

      • Martha Peterson

        LOL…I guess whenever I can get them. Maybe when Zachary comes from y’alls place, maybe he’d be kind enough to bring a few down. Let me ask Jordan first. :-p And I’ve got the holes started for the poles, and I think Jordan is going to pound them in for me tonight. Then maybe the fence will be in the next few days, and I think I should be planting here by next week. *fingers crossed and lots of praying!*

  • Lily

    I was so surprised to see our garden picture….thank you! (We’ve made it big…we’re on “Treasuring the Moments” blog!!!)The Strite Family’s garden is gorgeous! I would love to see it in real life.

    You certainly have a BIG obstacle to overcome with the lack of rain. I rarely have to water our garden. Our garden actually does better when we have a dry summer, because our land is low and wet.

    I love how you have implemented the square foot gardening technique. We use some of that by planting a double row of broccoli etc. with a plant in the middle, but I don’t use raised beds. (When you are growing enough for an army it takes more effort than I’m willing to put into it.)

    The use of hog panel cages is very clever, an absolute necessity! Our whole yard is fenced, but that does not keep the rabbits out…they always find a way to squeeze under the fence. We have used a natural repellant that worked great for the last couple of years.

    Love the pictures of the chicks and rabbit! So cute!

    Good luck with your garden. It’s so satisfying to gather what you need for dinner from the garden!

  • Melissa

    The rabbit and chicks together are so cute!! I have a potato bug problem in my garden. Any suggestions besides picking them off and feeding them to the chickens? ;O)

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