Plans for Our 2011 Garden and My New Flower Garden!

Yes, it's that time of year again! Planting and planning, sowing and growing. We're planing to sell most of the vegetables to a local farm stand this year. Our greenhouse was re-built with new plastic this spring, as the plastic tore off in a wind storm last year.
Also, God has blessed us with another greenhouse for free! It's a small 6'x8' aluminum framed greenhouse and very sturdy. Though it came in June, I'm putting it to work by using it for my extra tomato plants. This Fall I hope to grow some vegetables through part of the winter in it as well.   

Here is our list of vegetables and new herbs for this year:

Shin Kuroda Carrot

Sterling Onion

Alisa Craig Onion

Lancelot Leeks

Golden Zucchini

Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce

Dragon Carrots

Jericho Lettuce

True Lemon Cucumber

Healthy Sweet Pepper

Yugoslavian Red Butter head Lettuce

Danvers Carrots

Amish Snap Peas

Longfellow Cucumber

Blondkopfchen Cherry Tomatoes

Red Iceberg Lettuce

Moon Glow Tomato

Winter Luxury Pumpkin

All of these vegetables are heirloom vegetables and most are organic. We've bought from two seed companies in the past few years and have had great success with them. One is Seed Savers Exchange and the other is Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I've gotten all my herbs from them as well.

We have many more herbs, but these are the "new" ones for this years' garden...

German Thyme

Sweet Genovese Basil

Epazote

Fern leaf Dill

Garlic Chives and Onion Chives

Sweet Marjoram 

My new project of the year and one I hope will bring in a bit of capital is my cut flower garden. I have been working on making little garden plots all over our farm. Not an easy task, but I have been able to create 3 spots with the help of my dad. I now have a triangular bed next to the house. My "lily" bed about 8'x 3'. A long raised bed 12'x2'. And lastly a 56'' x 3'/6' bed which was not really planned. My dad took apart a rock wall which was rather crooked and not very pretty and cut it back by about 2-3' and lengthened it by about 30'....

Then with my brother's help rebuilt the rock wall and making it a total of 60' long!

Dad went and bought some decorative wood edging and I created the bed. We found a wonderful deal on compost so we tiled it in and it was ready to go!

Well, not quite... I found that it is not very easy to use every square inch to the best advantage when you're dealing with a 60' long bed! So my solution... string and popstickle sticks. That right! You take a yard stick and measure each foot out with a popstickle stick. Then taking the string you tie one end to popstickle stick and the other to the one opposite. Needless to say it took me awhile to finish that project!

Here is what I hope will grow this year:

Pygmy Torch Amaranthus Hypochondriacus

Twinkle Blue Blush Lithianthus 

Peacock Orchid Gladiolus

White Gladiolus 

Autumn Beauty Helianthus Annuus

Baby's Breath Elegans Alba Grandiflora

Bunny Tail Grass Lagurus Ovatus

Green Tails Amaranthus Caudatus

Teddy Bear Helianthus Annuus

Velvet Queen Helianthus Annuus

Valentine Helianthus Annuus

Grandiflora Mixture Sweet Peas Lathyrus Odoratus

Bells of Ireland Moluccella Laevis

Color Mixture Pincushion Scabiosa Atropurpurea

Butterfly Weed Asclepias Tuberosa

Black-Eyed Susan Rudbeckia Hirta

Italian White Helianthus Debilis

Cosmic Red Cosmos Sulphureus

Rainbow Mix Coleus Hybridus

White Oriental Lily

Blue Hydrangea

Shasta Daisy

Love-Lies-Bleeding Amaranthus Caudatus

White Musk Mallow Malva Moschata
(a native of England)

Pink Musk Mallow Malva Moschata
(a native of England)

Grapette Oriental Day Lily 

Oriental Poppy Mix Papaver Orientale

Red Pygmy Border Dahlia

Brenda Jordan's Heirloom  Cockscomb

Stella de Oro Oriental Border Lily

Scarlet Flax

I bought the dahlia, white glad, and peacock orchid at Holland Bulb Farms. Many of the other plants where from Seeds & More. While I splurged a bit and bought some a couple from England, Shaggy and the Oriental Poppy mix from a place called Plant World Seeds. 

Here is what I found out since putting together this post....

1. Chickens do not help your garden grow. Instead they enjoy tilling newly planted vegetables and flowers and tearing what's left to shreds.

2. Slugs have an obsession when it comes to eating. They do not just nibble they demolish. Nothing up here in the Pacific Northwest of Washington seems to stop them. Two choices are left; go hunting for them on and around the plants in late evening and early morning. Or get hot pepper wax spray. I did both.

3. However far apart the seed packet tells you to plant something, plant it closer. I found that out with my flower gardens. Most of these plants I've never seen first hand before, let alone grown. Making it difficult to calculate the distance between the plants.       

The plants have yet to notice that it is July and they need to start producing flowers and fruit. We harvested some peas and were able to sell over a two dozen heads of lettuce, as well as some dill,  basil, marjoram, and thyme so far. But like most things, when you want it to hurry up it always seems to take forever. I think they know this quote from Winnie-the-Pooh,  "Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day."

Seeing these plants grow and marveling at the complexities and diversities between them, I think of Psalm 19:1-4a: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their sound has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."  

The Spacious Firmament on High By Joseph Addison The spacious firmament on high, With all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heav'ns, a shining frame, Their great Original proclaim. Th' unwearied sun, from day to day, Does his Creator's pow'r display; And publishes to ev'ry land The work of an Almighty hand. Soon as the ev'ning shades prevail, The moon takes up the wondrous tale, And, nightly to the list'ning earth, Repeats the story of her birth; While all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole. What though in solemn silence all Move round the dark terrestrial ball? What though no real voice, nor sound, Amidst their radiant orbs be found? In Reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice; For ever singing, as they shine: 'The hand that made us is divine.'

From the nature we see around us...

 To the awesome power of storms...

 We can see God's boundless mercy, as well as His infinite might!