I know that I haven’t been on here very much of late. A lot of this is due to the aforementioned work + travel. Some of it is because it is spring and that means GARDENING!!!! I’ve not been able to have much of a garden for a few years now and I never really got the hang of gardening in Florida (the seasons were backward, instead of being too cold it was often too hot, etc., etc.) Anyway, I am glad to be back in a place where I understand what the seasons are doing and know when to plant things. Thus far we’ve planted: A lot of onion bulbs, radishes, beets, 8 cabbage plants, a lot of potatoes, 28 tomato plants and 10 pepper plants. Still to be put into the ground is: 3 kinds of winter squash, zucchini, lettuce, strawberry plants, lots more onions (I went a little crazy buying them!), some more tomato plants (ditto), some more peppers plants, sweet corn, pole beans, bush green beans (we really like green beans), pumpkins and maybe some gourds (not sure about them yet). A lot of the viney and large plants like the zucchini, squashes and pumpkins aren’t going to be planted in the “garden”. They tend to take things over and make a big headache for everyone. So instead, they are going to have mounds made in various places around the farm (including by the ditch near the road) where we will plant them and let them grow to their little hearts content. Our main worry has been, will a raccoon find this tasty? If yes, it needs to go in the garden at the front of the house, if no, it can go in the back 40.
The old board is there because that was a particularly muddy spot under the mulch for a while. No big horticultural secret or anything.
The pots contain herbs for the most part (with the exception of some geraniums [I LOVE geraniums!]).
Do you have any idea of how hard it is to take pictures of onion plants? Not the most photogenic plants in the world, especially when mulched liberally!
We’ve planted a LOT of tomatoes of many different varieties, some of which are heirlooms tomatoes. However, the bulk of them are Roma or Roma type tomatoes.
My mint boxes.
We’ve also had a second explosion of baby goats! Around May first, there were 5 new kids on the block born to 2 mothers. The triplets were born to a goat who has looked uncomfortably pregnant since about February and the twins were born to one that no-one knew was pregnant. Surprise! The triplets were all born super healthy and doing good but the twins were sort of a different story. There was one boy who came out huge and all red and one boy who was super tiny and the more normal white and red. We all pretty much figured that the little one wasn’t going to make it (he was about half the size of the other twin) but he’s more feisty than we gave him credit for and he’s been doing well. He’s actually a master of finding hiding places in the old equipment dad has stored out in the grove.
He may look familiar, but he’s ALL boy!
I may be little, but you’ll never find me in a game of hide and seek!
Really? Did you HAVE to headbutt me?
Our own Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. (The little guy is muddy, they are all outside now…)
The one female of the 5. Yep, 4 boys and 1 girl…
One of the triplets. Without checking “under their tails” they are remarkably hard to tell apart!
It’s fun getting to watch little ones play again!
One of the other things that has been going on is the push to get the corn planted. We’ve had perfect weather this year and thus dad was able to get the entire crop into the ground in under a week. This is a new record for him I think. So, to that end, I don’t have any pictures of dad planting the corn as most of it happened while I was in Ames. Sorry, you’ll just have to look forward to it for next year:-) So, I give you a picture of corn shoots just out of the ground. I haven’t found a way to photograph it yet, but at this stage, when you look out over a field, it looks like green fuzz.
Sarah Jane Humke 
28 tomatoe plants? I see a lot of canning in your future. The garden looks great, I hope, that the critters will leave your plant alone…. btw. I still haven’t send your Easter card, shame on me….