Around the Garden

I thought I might do a post on my our garden progress.  It's looking really nice these days!  So far, I've we've got cucumbers, corn, okra, English peas, tomatoes, bell peppers (green and carnival colors), spinach (which we have eaten 2 salads from!), and carrots (which I'm pretty sure will NOT be producing anything).  I've also got a raised bed purely for strawberries, which I am very excited about!  One of my best friends gave me 8 runners from her strawberry patch (I use all these terms as if I know what I'm talking about...bahahahah...I really have no idea; I'm just doing what other people tell me to do, and then pray that it works ;)  But, we've eaten 2 strawberries from it already, and there are more waiting to ripen, so I guess it's working =)

Here is the first ripened strawberry we picked:

  I have one more raised bed that needs to be tilled and filled with soil, although, I'll be sad to see it filled with plants as it serves as a perfect playpen for Rachel =):

   I plan on putting more corn and okra, as well as cucumbers, squash, and zucchini in that one when it's ready.  I am also going to plant watermelon, which means I'll need another raised bed just for that, and cantaloupe (I'll be putting that on the other half of the strawberry bed for this year, since my strawberry plants are so small and I've got the room).  

Our first bowl of spinach (the leaves are huge, but very tasty!):

My carrots that have lots of green-age, but no orange underneath =(

My middle bed in the early stages w/cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and green beans:

The end bed in the early stages w/peas, green beans, cucumbers, corn, okra, spinach, and carrots:

The first flower on one of the cucumbers!:

The peas are also flowering nicely:

Here is a more recent picture with everything growing and the kids running through the sprinkler:

On the non-edible front, the flowers around here have been blooming like crazy!  It's so pretty.  I was never really into roses that much; not that I don't like them, but I have never really gotten into planting or growing them.  But, when we moved here, the property had rose bushes all over the place, and I have really been enjoying them!  Natalie has been picking them to put in vases for our Mary statue in the house, which is just too sweet =).  

This one is from a huge bush right outside the kids' bedroom window:

It has tons of blooms on it:

The smaller bush next to it is about ready to start blooming:

These white ones are just gorgeous:

But, I think the yellow ones are my favorite:

I'm not sure what these are going to look like, but they are super tiny!:

Besides roses, we also have these pretty little pink carnations (at least I think that's what they are - please correct me if I'm wrong...I am no expert at flowers):

And these lovely ladies:

Natalie's snapdragon plant:

And, of course, the azalea's and clover are blooming EVERYWHERE down here:

Which means we have been making lots of these in the afternoons:

And, Phil and I found this guy the other day while working on the fence:

Needless to say, we have really been enjoying the beautiful outdoors this spring!  I feel very thankful that my kids have the opportunity to enjoy God's creation so up close and personal.  Hopefully they learn to appreciate it as well.