Crops Are Coming In!

This is the third strawberry picking, but definitely the largest. Got a gallon today. What I do to preserve them is wash and hull them, lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze. After they are frozen, I put them in zipper-type bags and back into the freezer. All I have to do is measure out what I need. Love having these to look forward to in the winter!

Gardening

For the last 25 or so years we have gardened with black plastic. We went to a farmer and bummed an old "ag bag," the bags they blow the chopped hay into. If they're not reused, they just go to the dump, because they cut them open to feed the cows. The outside is white but the inside is black, so we put it in the garden black side up. It is extremely durable-we've never replaced it. (Much to the dismay of a fussy former neighbor, who thought we should throw it away every year!)

We hold it down on the sides with old belting from the cement plant my husband worked at, along with various rocks, bricks and boards we've collected along the way.

Then we cut holes in the plastic-squares ranging in size from 6" to 18". The smaller holes are for beans, peas, corn, etc., while the larger ones are for lettuce, carrots and radishes.

About every third or fourth year we take the plastic off, spread horse manure over, till and replace the plastic, rotating it at least once so there are new areas of soil to plant in. On the off years we use a garden claw and work a bit of manure in each hole. It's not as much work as it sounds and the bonus comes throughout the summer when the water doesn't evaporate as quickly and weeding is minimal. We don't have nearly as much trouble with pests, either. Watering is easy-we just sprinkle. There are enough holes in the plastic that nothing stands on top, it all drains down to the soil.

Even our strawberries are planted in the plastic.

As the garden grows, I'll post pictures of our bounty.

Harvest Time

About 50 pounds or so-not our record but enough for us.

Even though I'm allergic to tomatoes, we raise them primarily for Stan. We give a bunch away, too, especially to our busy kids. Today we picked all the tomatoes, squash, and broccoli. We'll freeze the broccoli and can a few tomatoes. I covered up but came away with a pretty good rash on my arms where the glove and sleeve didn't meet. I suspect the squash plants. I've never been tested for squash and don't seem to have trouble eating them, but the plants have always given me fits. Stan keeps telling me to back off, he'll get those, but darn it the work needs to get done!

This kid is crazy about carrots. Can't wait to dig those up, there seems to be a huge crop!

In other news, I'm keeping a daily diary of the Diatomacious Earth and will probably post weekly about my progress or lack thereof.