Greenery in the Garden and More!

This year we got back to gardening in a big way. Our house is located on decent corner lot with plenty of space for gardening of whatever variety we choose to take on. Having previously operated a licensed family daycare here that required a fenced in space, we chose to utilize that area for the vegetable gardening. 

Here we have the six raised beds my husband built. They measure 4'×8' and are 16" deep. In this photo, it shows the progress of filling each with soil/compost/soil and adding some of the landscaping fabric between and around each that wood chips will top for weed control. Very little grass will remain in this enclosed space once all is said and done.

This photo shows my patch of rhubarb in its second growth. We need to separate that this year as it is now too big for the space it occupies. We use some, but sell the excess creating a nice opportunity. Also shown are the variety of bush beans, peas, lettuce, celery, beets, two varieties of tomatoes that were transferred to one of the beds, and the hills (zucchini, carnival squash, mooregold squash, and cucumbers) established. There might be more peas and beans sprouting after the rain from yesterday and with the heat today. We also have radishes, onions, carrots, and another row of beets that could also sprout. Some sunflowers are started and waiting for their home outdoors. The corn will go in the ground soon. Another week or so and round three of peas and beans will get planted. And then there are the tomatoes...

The long teal and oval white planters are all spinach. There are two more containers that are also spinach, one is cilantro, one sweet basil, and one thyme. Everything else you see is one of four tomato varieties - Martino's roma, ultimate opener, candyland red, and SunSugar. I had not intended on having so many tomatoes. 

When I was growing up, we always had gardens. BIG gardens! I don't remember ever seeing mom or dad start their own tomato plants. I do remember being told not to do it because it was difficult due to the seeds rarely growing. As you can see in the photos above, that is not the case. I am pretty positive that almost every seed for each variety grew. 

They were started in appropriate potting soil and compostable egg cartons as shown above. (The right half of this photo shows the tomatoes. The left half shows spinach, celery, lettuceand sunflowers.) I spent the morning yesterday separating each of those little seedlings. We only want a few plants of each variety. A person has to look at what they will use, what they can store, and what they have time to work on storing. 

Upon first separating them, almost all wilted significantly. They should have been separated a week ago, so I expected the shock reaction to the plants. The best I could hope for is getting them in new soil fast as possible and watered for recovery. The collage photo above shows not only significant recovery, but also growth now that the roots can expand. Fingers crossed this trend holds as the extra plants will be sold. That should be in another week or two.

We also have our flower beds. When I was out checking on the transplants and recent seed plantings, I also snapped a few pics of some blooms in the flower beds. The bleeding hearts, parrot tulip, and blooms on the chives caught my eye with the rain drops still hanging on them over their beautiful colors. 

Are you doing any vegetable gardening this year? If you are, what are you growing? Do you grow just to eat for the season or to preserve for the cold months and cut down on the grocery bill? What is your preferred method of preservation - freezing, canning, dehydrating? Share your methods, tips, tricks, etc in the comments. Let's share with each other. While this is not my first rodeo in the gardening and food preserving world, there is always something to learn. 

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What do you do?

It is true that everyone has bumps in that road called life. "How we handle them is what matters" is the mantra commonly spoken. Have you ever asked why a person just stops calling, texting, or backs out of scheduled engagements? Do you assume and make comments that they are always flakey? Do you know why that youthful looking person needs that handicap parking space though they walked into the store unassisted? A better question is, do you have the right to ask or judge?

I have a connective tissue disorder called Ehler's Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and number of other medical issues that provide daily challenges to living nobody can understand unless they are me. At least one of my children inherited this genetic condition from me and has another disorder called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) that has made her life challenging in a very similar way to mine, yet more so. None of these things can be seen unless we have to wear a brace or use some other type of assistive device. Others tend to reduce what we have to typical injuries or basic aches and pains. This is far from the case. The truth is that pain scale in the doctors office is not correct for patients such as us. The 10 rating on that scale is more like an 8 for us....maybe. Our tolerance to pain, tolerance to medications to regulate said pain, reactions/negative interactions to medications in general can be very tricky. The majority of doctors are not properly trained to understand or care for patients with our particular issues. 

So, why do I bring this up? Not a sympathy vote. I have been living this life all my life. Fighter from day one. But I will mention EDSin my posts from time to time as it is a part of my life. I want to bring awareness to a genetic disorder that affects more of the population than doctors know because they now understand it is misunderstood and misdiagnosed by medical staff. The medical world is slowly acknowledging it has a lot of catch up to do. 

I challenge each of you to look at how you react to those around you when they "can't" or you see an individual doing something you consider unacceptable. Ask yourself why you are thinking that way? It truly is not ok to judge a book by its cover. It is so much easier to empathize. Then get out there and spread some love for ALL!!