Planting Day

We spent another productive day in the garden yesterday.

The ground was broken and corn, beans, peas, and okra were planted.

As we planted our last row, we watched the sun go down together. And it felt so good.

As I type this morning, a nice soft, soaking rain is falling, nourishing our seeds. Good timing, indeed.

In all, 40 rows total were planted. I believe my sweet hubs was trying to make amends for those lost seedlings!

Fortunately for us, my Papa lives a short distance from us, and we were able to borrow his tiller and planter.

Those items are on our wish list… with so many other things we need and want around here.

It warmed my heart to see Daniel so eager to help his daddy.

They took turns with the planter, and the garden was prayed over by all…

You can see Daniel with his sweet hands pressed together in the photo above. My heart is so full!

For this event, I was relegated to a supervisory position (my neck is still mending).

I took notes and made decisions concerning what to plant in each row.

There are 20 rows of Trucker’s Favorite corn, and the other 20 rows contain 1 row each of 18 different varieties of peas/beans, plus 1 row of okra. Corn is easily cross-pollinated, so we stuck with one variety. (Trucker’s favorite is heat and drought tolerant and disease/pest resistant. It seemed like a good variety to me!) Cross-pollination doesn’t happen with peas or beans, so we’re trialing them this year. We’ll see which ones grow best in our soil and which ones we find tastiest, and those will be planted in abundance next year. There are an equal number of bush varieties and pole varieties. Cross pollination occurs in okra, so again we planted one variety: Clemson Spineless.

 

Earlier in the day, Sara Lynn and I repotted some tomato seedlings. These are all Homestead tomatoes which were my favorite tomatoes we grew last year. They really hold up well under our extreme heat and humidity better than other varieties I’ve grown. We’re also trying some new tomato varieties this year, but they are newly emerged seedlings and not yet ready for transplant.

I think it’s important to encourage homesteading/life skills early on in children. So, I gave Sara Lynn a few recycled pots, some potting soil, and seedlings of her own to plant. She happily potted her ‘peppers’ (she insisted hers were peppers even though I told her they were tomatoes!) while I took care of my own. We had a great time getting our hands dirty together, and I dare say a love for gardening was born in her little heart.

We worked up quite an appetite after our work was done. Cinnamon applesauce for me…

And ice cream for the little one.

I could tell she was all tuckered out after the planting fun.

When she asked me if she could take her nap outside, I thought, why not?

We rested on the back porch together. She with her teddy bear, and I with a good book. Bliss.