Poppins set up a caravan to pull the little ones around the yard on a "wild ride". The Girl posed on the lawnmower just for effect; she and Branch actually switched places for the ride.
Poppins planted quite a few cherry tomato plants. The bamboo stakes are necessary, as some of the plants quite often grow well over our heads.
We're experimenting this year with more container gardens. Because our yard is so full of beautiful, not-to-be-cut trees, sunshine is at a premium. Poppins thought that it would be interesting to use more containers, sort of a combined raised bed/square foot concept. The plants could be packed closer together and also remain free of weeds. Some of the pots contain seeds from our Thai friend in Minnesota, so we're not quite certain what's going to come up! The seeds were precious to her, so we're excited to share in whatever harvest happens. The "yard" behind the pots is planted with a peach tree, cucumbers, blueberry bushes, and a few rogue tomatos.
Here we have another peach tree (in the pot), a gorgeous (and now valuable Satsuma), more tomatoes, and assorted peppers. The Girl also put in a small plot of poppies.
Peppers, peppers, and more peppers (and ChubChub's peas...). The fenced area encloses Mean Ol' Mama's beets, which are now up and growing nicely.
This raised bed is now exclusively for asparagus. A few of last year's planting have sprung up, and hopefully we'll have many delicious meals in the future.
Josiah's potatoes are growing beautifully. He has a few pepper plants, as well. Poppins has an area behind Josiah and along the front of the property for blueberries. Right now we have at least 50 plants that are doing well. Exciting! Stennes has a large garden in the Goat Pen, full of potatoes and a few cabbages. We'll be planting pumpkins as soon as the potato harvest is in.
For "Dinner at Our House", we're having roast beef in gravy, potatoes, pineapple, fresh buns, butterpeas, and whatever else strikes the moment. Dessert will be a new recipe: German Chocolate Bars.The four Big Boys are just now leaving for 4H Poultry Competition in Tifton. This is the first year that they have participated, so we'll see how much they've learned. Tough stuff, these competitions...
