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March 22, 2012

Life On the Farm in March


Do you remember the our warm weather in January that led me to some winter planting by planting tomatoes in the milk jugs?  Well here they are ready to transplant.  Looks like I have my work cut out for me!  

Then in February, I planted tomatoes and peppers in small cups and placed them in the egg incubator.  They are just about the same height as the milk jug plants, but I don't think they are as strong looking as the milk jug plants.


Many of these are ready to transplant too.  The peppers will have to wait awhile, they seem to take longer to be sturdy enough to transplant.

Out in one of the garden beds, the peas have decided to pop their heads up finally.  This is the first year that I soaked the peas for 24 hours before planting and it really paid off!  I've heard that it's good to soak your green beans first too.  Do you soak your green beans, and if so, for how long?


By the way, I suppose peas can cross pollinate.  On one side of this panel are shelling peas and on the other side are snap peas.  I guess I won't save any seed, I was just hoping that they'd grow because I've not been able to grow them very well in the past.


I don't have any grape tomato seed, so when I saw one of them at the local MFA, I grabbed one.  It's planted in the garden already, but I might have to cover it at some point.  With the warm weather we've been having, I might not have to.

To give you an idea of how warm it has been, I thought I'd share some flower pictures with you too.  


I love creeping phlox, they are so cheery and colorful and we have them along our driveway for everyone to enjoy when they drive in.


The Magnolia tree is in full bloom!


And the Redbud's are also in full bloom.  The Dogwood's are not far behind either.  One of the beautiful things about the Ozarks are the native Redbud and Dogwood trees.  They grow throughout the forest all over the Ozarks.  This time of year, before the oak leaves pop out, you can look down into the woods and see the flowering trees that grow wild everywhere.  It's simply beautiful!

Even though this Bleeding Heart isn't blooming yet, I am very pleased to see it making it's presence known again this year.


You see, my brother passed away 14 years ago on Mother's Day.  The following Mother's Day, I got my Mom a Bleeding Heart for her flower bed.  When they moved from Minnesota to the Ozarks, she lovingly dug it up and brought it with them.  It has done so well, she gave me some starts from it and now it is also in my flower bed.  At the time, it represented beauty to us while we walked through our own Valley of the Shadow of Death, and now it reminds us of how good God is to heal our grief.  

Time in the garden has a way of healing, strengthening and rejuvenating a mind and heart.  I personally feel very close to God in the garden with my hands in the dirt.  

There will be no gardening today though, we have had a lot of rain this week.  In fact, we were actually flooded in ... here take a look for yourself!


Coming down off our mountain on any side, you travel through a valley to get to any main roads.  That means that a good healthy rain of any kind will more than likely cause us to stay home.  Lord willing and the creek don't rise literally pertains to us.  We don't complain since it doesn't take much of a reason for us to stay home.  Home is where our hearts are!






17 comments:

  1. OH....this post makes me want to get out in my garden...but it's now buried under 3+ inches of snow that fell last night. Spring is slow in coming to the Pacific Northwest! Crazy weather we are having. Enjoy your time at home, praying you are safe on your mountain! :)

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    1. I heard last night that the driving was pretty bad up there. There was a bad accident on one of the highways causing huge delays. The trucks are having to chain up. I'm not sure where you are up there, but enjoy the snow. We haven't had any to speak of down here and we will pay for it later. The pollen count is already high here :(

      The warm weather has basically forced me to get going with the gardening, lol. Otherwise, I'd still be sewing!

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  2. Beautiful pictures! By the way, we have been flooding here in Texas, too. Water is everywhere. Some of your garden washed out; enough remains..and if it drys a bit we can replant.
    I have soaked pea/bean seeds overnight before planting..works quite well. I don't do it every time because I simply don't think about it.
    The garden is a great place to connect with our Heavenly Father--my favorite 'alone time' with Him is in the midst of His growing things.
    Wonderful post!!

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    1. I'm glad to hear that Texas is getting much needed rain. I pray you have a much better year this year!

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  3. Wow, you are going to have a beautiful garden this year. That sure is a lot of rain. But yes, there are days when it really is wonderful to stay home.

    Love your photos.

    Blessings,
    Connie

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  4. What a beautiful post. I like the idea of the bleeding heart. We always give a tree to plant as a sympathy gift, but it can't easily be moved after a few years. The bleeding heart, however, can share itself so readily.

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  5. You are off to a great start on your garden!! I should get started here in Virginia, but I just haven't--THANKS for the inspiration to get moving though!!

    I hope the rain doesn't become a problem, take care!

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  6. Yeah we have had rain all week in North Missouri too! And the wind has been terrible at times and even blew over one of our really heavy cages. They say this weekend is supposed to be really warm and sunny though : )

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    1. Yes, I'm looking forward to this weekend for sure! That wind was awful, wasn't it? At least we didn't have any more tornadoes through all of that!

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  7. We had rain today, but not flooding. Now I know where that saying came from. smile.

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  8. Your peas look great! How did they fair through all that rain? Our creek was nearly impassable too, but we blasted through with the suburban! :)LOL

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    1. Everything has seemed to do fairly well with all the rain, especially the onions... they doubled in size. You can practically watch the lilies grow and the grass is ready to be mowed, again! What about your garden? How did it take all this rain?

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  9. The Ozarks are so beautiful this time of year! you are a little south of me, I have not planted anything outside yet and I don't currently have space to start seeds early. Thank you for the beautiful pictures

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  10. Wow, that's a lot of rain! So far this spring we've been spared flooding.... so far.
    your tomato plants are beautiful! I wish we'd started ours earlier! Hopefully they'll still make though.

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  11. I wish we could have some of your rain up here. It's really dry. I'm looking forward when I can start planting, but alas, it's Minnesota, and you know how that goes. Your plants are looking so healthy and the flowers are beautiful. That is a beautiful story about your brohter and the bleeding heart plant. My bleeding heart is coming up too, yeah. I have a Christmas catus that was given my mom when daddy passed away in 2001 that I've managed to keep alive. I'm not a huge fan of catus, but this has special meaning. Oh, I was going to ask you, do you use all heirloom seeds? We are trying to convert over to all heirloom but I'm having very mixed results. Is there any certain supplier that you really like?

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    1. Heirlooms are wonderful, and yes we use mostly heirlooms for everything. You can get mixed results and it seems the harvest is usually not as big as some hybrids. The hybrids are simply from crossing some heirlooms with good qualities to improve upon the plant. Does that necessarily make them bad? I used to think so, purity of the plant was very important to me. We use a few hybrids now simply because I do not have the space to grow enough heirlooms to provide us with what we need for the year. This is the first year for us to do that. We have several people we like to get heirlooms from and one of them is Baker Creek. www.rareseeds.com Very nice people to support also. We also get heirlooms from www.morgancountyseeds.com both are here in Missouri. When you look at the Baker Creek website, be sure to look for seeds that enjoy the northern climates. Since I gardened in northern Wisconsin and down here, feel free to ask me about different varieties! I hope this help!

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