Fruits of Our Labor

Some of our first fruits.

Clockwise from 12 o'clock: banana pepper, green beans, squash, jalapenos, and yummy bell peppers.

Our Garden, June 2009

We've planted a vegetable garden behind our house. It has been a lot of fun, though hard work, and we are already seeing some fruits of our labor.

We are growing 2 types of tomatoes, 2 types of corn, 2 types of pumpkin, 2 types of sunflowers, zuchini, squash, jalapenos, banana peppers, yellow bell peppers, basil, parsley, cucumbers, okra, and strawberries this year. We planted them just outside the back door and in the circle in the middle of the driveway. Everything is showing signs of fruit except the cucumbers and okra. Well, and the strawberries that we are intentionally not allowing to fruit so that they will grow a larger patch.

I wanted to show you how some of the plants have grown in one month.

And more pictures from our garden:

In order from top: 1.) the first female pumpkin shoot (fruit);
2. & 3.) our first harvest---jalapenos & green beans;
4.) the snake that lives in the garden;
5.) Erin weeding;
6.) Bill in strawberry patch.

CREDITS:
Font: Kitty Weed by KevinandAmanda.com
Garden Tools: from "Arbor Day" by Faith True (SYTYCD challenge at digiaddicts.com)
Date Stamp and Days: from "Project 365 Essentials V.1" by WM[squared]
Slide Picture Frame: by Gunhild Storeide

Bargain!

Earlier in the summer, when we planted some tomatoes, I needed to get my garden hose under control because the water spigot is quite a distance from our veggie garden area. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, I mean I have bigger fish to fry, except for we pay someone to cut the grass and I never know when he is coming. So, I try to keep the hose put up at all times. I went to Walmart in great hopes of buying a convenient hose reel that makes winding it up super simple. After looking at the prices ($30+), sadly I resigned myself to getting the $10 hose holder that attaches to the house and requires that I wrap the hose around it manually. I installed it myself and it works just fine.

It's the end of the season and guess what? What's left is on sale. We found this nice hose reel with great features at Target for less than what I paid for the boring basic version (a whopping $8.24)! The picture below is of a similar reel, I think our model may have one additional feature. To wind the hose up, you use a hand crank that folds away after use. It also has a sliding track that guides the hose for easy winding and unwinding. Awesome! The reel is actually a cart on wheels, so it can go anywhere on this 1.6 ac property. Since the yard is so large, we have quite a bit of hose, and this additional reel will be so handy. It takes three hoses hooked together to reach the fence along the road (we know because we cleaned algae off the fence a couple of months ago). We also found a a ring of about 10 hose washers at Target for $0.53 and know they'll be useful in time as well!