News from the garden: Spring 2012

Via

A new season, a new garden.

We have VERY grand plans for our garden this year. Already it's three times the size of our last plot, so it's going to be GOOOD!

Some of the plants this year are... are you ready?

Snow peas, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce (like Romaine and Argula), chinese vegetables such as Bak Choy and Gai Lan. We also have okra, radishes, eggplants, squash, zucchini, garlic, sweet Georgia onions. We have bush beans and Asian long red beans, cantaloupe and watermelons, our usual tomatoes (Roma and Brandywine) and herbs like basil, thyme rosemary sage cilantro dill, fennel and MINT!

MINT!!! Now think Mojitos in the summer!!!

And get this. SEVEN types of peppers : red and orange bell peppers, pepperocino peppers, chili padi (seed specially flown in from Thailand, cayenne pepper, jalapeno peppers and maraconi peppers.

Too bad it's just the start, and they're all tiny sprouts growing out of their planters. Eventually when they bear fruit, I'll be posting pictures of our harvests. The J-man got cool seeds this time, like Burmese okra and an eggplant variety from Iraq. We also bought 50 bamboo poles and erected the structures, in the picture below, for the beans to climb.




We bought our seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and they claim that all their seeds are non-GMO, non-hybrid, non-treated and non-patented. We wish to support companies like this one, so if you are looking into gardening, do read up about the companies before you buy the seeds.



When I came home from work one day, I had four strong muscular men working in the backyard. The J-man and his friends were constructing our very own chicken coop!!! They wired a fence all around a little shed we have in the yard. And we'll purchase the chickens once we clean out the shed and clear the area within the fence. Fresh eggs every morning! Just imagine that!



Lastly, don't laugh, but we're also trying to grow our own oyster mushrooms. Since we're not going to have his parent's neighbor's tree stump to rely on for our supply, and it really isn't morel hunting season yet, we're hoping these babies grow a little bigger before we harvest them! They're growing in ziplock bags!!

I will be posting with more updates on our garden / farm, so stay tuned and I hope you share our excitement!