It's Garden Time Again.

Every year when this season rolls around, we all get outside and into gardens to work together. As the children grow, it is so much fun to see them be able to do more and more. They are really becoming a big help, and this year we gave each of the girls their own little plot to plant whatever they like in. They are so excited!

We have several garden plots under cultivation. About a quarter of our front garden is in greens this year. We are currently enjoying two kinds of lettuce, 

radishes, kale, collards, and spinach! Catching up on our B vitamins!:-) 

This patch needed to be worked up before transplanting butternut squash into it and marking off the girl's little gardens. Everyone got involved.

 Conagher says, "Hep, hep!" (help). We might have to find a tool that's more your size, buddy. ;)

Its so beautiful when the flowers start blooming! This is the first bloom that opened on the Echinacea in the herb garden.

Dustin, when mowing the yard, has been going around several of these gorgeous clumps of wild daisies that came up in front of the garden. They are just too pretty, and are so healthy it looks like we planted them there on purpose!

Lilly and Conagher hard at work. Looks like little guy found a garden tool he could actually handle, after all!

This little fellow still gets to take it easy while everyone else works (he he!)! I see you, you chubby lil' lazy bones!

 Peek a boo!

Just a few shots from around the garden and yard, now.

The big pieces of brown paper are what we are using to mulch around our cucumbers. This is going to keep weeding down to a minimum and also should help us have cleaner cukes when it comes like to pick them. We like to make pickles but also hope to be able to sell some at market and in our little farm stand this summer.

These barefoot beauties! I foresee some serious foot scrubbing in the bath tub tonight! I love my country kids :-) 

Looking forward to seeing what this garden produces and what other blessings and adventures come our way this summer. Dustin and I were married in the summer and I always like to count the gardens we have tended together. This one makes number ten!

The Legend of the Great Sweet Potatoes ( and other fall harvest).

We plowed a new garden spot this spring. Sometimes a new garden is a bit of an "iffy" proposition. The soil is often in need of amending with organic matter and the plot will usually do better after a few years of faithful fertilizing. Well, this plot did OK with most of what we planted. We got some pretty nice tomatoes, some indifferent pumpkins and an alright Mellon crop; but the sweet potatoes! They blew us away! These things broke all the rules and got ginormous! :-) 

We sent one of the sweet potatoes home with a neighbor. She weighed it out of curiosity and it was over six pounds! It wasn't the the biggest of the bunch, either.

 Here we are shaking the dirt of the bunches as we dig them up. As you can see we really got some interesting shapes as well as the huge size.

Sweet potato pie, sweet potato wedges with butter and salt, mashed, diced, it's all good! " Yummy-yum!"

Take a look at the clusters of roots!

Our big helpers. Brother missed out as he was taking a nap. Too bad, he relishes playing in the dirt.

Here we are with some more of the harvest. We had a lot of fun with the heirloom pumpkin and gourds. Esther is holding her pet bantam rooster, Jack. He is the friendliest chicken ever and loves being carried around!

Check out Janet's "little pumpkin"! New baby Morgan is due to arrive in February!

Our First Garden in Arkansas.

Our first garden at our new homestead has been more of a success than we could have expected. We have been enjoying fresh produce, canning some and even bringing veggies to the local farmer's market regularly, something we have been wanting to get involved in for years! Here are some pictures we hope will give you an idea of our little patch. We hope to expand it by a lot next year!

The view from the front yard. As you can see it is raised beds, mostly rotted hay bales from our nice nieghbor's cattle pastures :-) 

Green beans

Tomatoes

This heirloom corn, Yellow Jarvis, has been in Dustin's family for more than thirty years! This little patch is mainly for seed for next year .

Ahhh... the joys of a summer mellon-patch!

'' Yummy, we can't wait to cut it!"

View from the road. We see a lot of rubber necking as folks drive by, people love a garden! What can we say? :-) 

Selfie with the baby!

Some shots from the latest farmer's market, fresh herbs have been a good seller.

Home-Made-Home,what's in the future for you? We can't wait to see!

Around the Farm.

This summer is keeping us so busy ! One of our biggest projects has been keeping up with the tomato  harvest. We have been canning tons of salsa as well as chopped tomatoes. As you can see in the pictures the whole family has been getting in on the act :-) .

Our big helper.

Open wide,Daddy!

We have some huge,beautiful sunflowers this year. Some of the flower heads are a foot across! The girls are eager for them to  ripen so they can help toast them.

Our stand of heirloom popcorn is doing well. Now, if we can just keep the racoons out until it's ready to pick...

A few weeks ago we went to a you-pick blue berry farm and came home with full bellies, blue faces, and seven gallons of berries to can and eat this winter.

Ember is kissing her little cousin, Logan.

This is one of several arbors on our place. It is so pretty right now with the trumpet vine and rose of Sharon in bloom that it just had to go on the blog.:-) 

"Rattlesnake" heirloom pole beans ready to take to the farmer's market.

Above; the results of a busy day of canning.  Below; the girls gloating over the first egg their new chicken laid.Esther loves to check the eggs with her little basket.

Cucumbers just before canning.

Sweet kisses from a happy little girl.if that doesn't make life worth living, what does?