Finally Planting

Yesterday was a declared work day around here. Due to too many vacations and busy tractor schedules the garden was still not planted. I told the kiddos that if it wasn't planted by yesterday there was no point in even putting in the seeds this year. In spite of their unanimous groans the weather was nice and cool and mom put them all to work. The first job on the list was a fun one, tho, as the strawberries have begun. We picked a basket full and enjoyed eating every single one:) I'll maybe get stingy with the rest and make some jelly, but they tasted oh-so-good and made all the hard work of planting and weeding so worth it.

Trent also picked a big basket of rhubarb. Our pitiful little rhubarb plants haven't done much until this spring. Last fall I had Rob dump a load of compost and a load of heavy clay soil from around the pond right on top of the plants. I figured it would either kill them or cure them, and luckily it cured them because they grew like crazy this spring. Come fall I will be looking for a bigger spot to transplant rhubarb.

The big garden became even bigger this year after Steve and Dave dug it up for me. We are nearly out of frozen and canned garden goodies from last year so will need to store lots more this summer. This seems to be the theme every garden year~ bigger, bigger, bigger. The garden starts way down on this end.

Goes waaayyyy down to the other end where that little boy is standing.

And then it T's off into this fenced in area by the yard. And, ladies, I still do not own a tiller. Just me and 5 kiddos and an old hoe, which broke in the midst of all the hard labor yesterday. One day I will justify spending the money on a nice little tiller. To Rob's perfect planning mind my not-straight-planted-too-close method of gardening drives him crazy. Poor guy! But my theory is the closer you plant the seeds the less weeds that can grow. Usually by July you can barely walk through the garden but it sure does produce a bumper crop.

We decided to move the arbor to the front of the garden, rather than as a centerpiece, so the tractors could get through easier. It makes a very pretty entrance. I planted some cucumbers and morning glories to climb this year.

Of course there were the fun garden critters hanging around. There's always a science experiment beckoning around here.

Everybody worked so hard all day long. All the seeds and tomato plants got planted, only the potatoes are left which will go in today.

We worked right up until dark when the mosquitoes got too bad. Then we ran a tub to wash off all that dirt on everybodies toes, cracked open the cheese puffs, and crashed on the couch. Aaaahhhh! All that good garden harvesting to look forward to!