Whew!---Rain, Rain GO AWAY!

Rain Rain go Away poem

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day.
Little Johnny wants to play;
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again!

Interesting history behind that poem you know. You should totally check it out. :)

I was just planning on using it to illustrate that with 5" of rain in one week we really dont need any more.

   It has kept me from finishing up planting the garden, until this morning. I wanted to share with you everything that I have finally gotten put in between the two gardens so you can see what we grow and put up every year. Obviously, some things are simply for fresh eating, after all, do YOU know anyone who preserves Kohlrabi> LOL! Not me. We just love to eat it fresh or steamed with dinner.

   Here is a list of the gardens and what we have chosen to put in this year. We always try one new thing a year for sure, last year it was Okra (epic fail here in the north) and Strawberry Popcorn (which was fun and turned out well).

   This year we are growing turnips and rutabegas from seed and we will see how they grow. I have a few plants of each to see which does better in our growing time.

   We chose not to plant potatoes this year because we have a lot put away (canned and dried) from a couple sales this last year, and dont want to waste space on those. If I see a good deal and the Handy Hubby wants to knock together a slatted box so we can try to grow the 100 lbs in one space I might do it, but otherwise it'll be next year.

   Here is the list of what we put in between the two gardens. This is to show some of you who have asked what we put in to make growing 60% of our family's food possible.

• 40 tomato plants: that includes 4 cherry and quite a few roma type of tomatoes
• lettuce, kale and spinach ( in 3 places, I will probably succession plant this so we have enough for fresh eating and dehydrating)
• 6 zucchini plants and 5 yellow squash plants
• carrots, radishes, beets, turnips and rutabegas
• 5 hills of regular cukes and 3 hills of lemon cukes
• onions
• cinnamon basil, and 8 other kinds of herbs in one garden, five more in the other one.
• black beans (Cherokee Nation) and jacob's cattle beans (this is seed saved from last years bumper crops). All are grown in a relatively small area as the black beans go up and the cattle beans are bush beans.
• watermelon, pumpkins, and squash (acorn, butternut, delicata, and blue hubbard)
• sunflowers
• 3 different kinds of hot peppers--banana, jalepeno and chili peppers (and ancho)
• eggplant (4)
• green beans and yellow wax beans (LOTS)
• green, yellow and orange sweet peppers, all grown from seeds
• peas
• ground cherries and 3 other kinds of berry bushes that got put in this year
• kohlrabi
• raspberries, and strawberries (in 3 different places since we dont have the keyhole garden built yet)
• and we STILL have to put in the micro orchard with two apples, pears, a peach and a plum tree. It'll get done. eventually. :)

   So what are you doing this year for a new crop? The okra was the first thing I really had as a fail ever in the five years I have been adding new things in. I just dont think it gets hot enough long enough up here in MN. But boy, was that stuff really growing there for a while! I was kinda bummed since my youngest sister was really excited about having some home-grown okra when she visited, but I guess she understands I can only do so much. :)

    How is the weather where you are?

Many Blessings to you and yours,

Heather