Rain and gardens

We finally got some rain today!!! This is always a hard time of year in Southern Delaware. Last year I tried to have a garden on this new property I am renting and it was a disaster. The soil (sand) is just not good, the location seemed good but got way to much of the afternoon sun, so between horrible soil, little rain and high heat, no matter how much watering was done, the garden just fried.

So, this year, I took up the "who needs a front yard...you can't eat grass" method. And I am doing raised beds and container gardening. I am also much less ambitious this year and the size is more manageable. I have two raised beds in the front yard, made out of left over fire wood as the border...filled with rabbit manure courtesy of my rabbits, organic soil and hummus bought from the local store. My compost is pretty much gone due to chicken scavenging.

My mother gave me topsy turveys so I planted a bunch of cherry tomatoes and one with hot peppers and one with mild peppers hanging from my porch. The idea is that I can walk out the front each morning, water the plants, grab the tomatoes for my lunch and go! The peppers are for my jelly that was so popular last year (jalepeno berry jam). I have pickling cucumbers in containers, plum tomatoes and basil in a couple others. I have some herbs growing like rosemary and lemon balm, parsley, dill and chives. In the raised beds are zucchini, yellow squash, winter squash and more plum tomatoes. I love my sundried tomatoes and refuse to buy the chemical laden expensive things in the grocery store! So, I dehydrate my own, put them in a container in olive oil and I have enough for the whole year!

My chickens have been very "helpful" with the bugs, but have also eaten all the flowers off the squash plants and uprooted a few things like my lettuce, so a fence just went up this morning, not fool proof but hopefully proves too much trouble for the chickens who have more than an acre to play in...I only ask for a few feet for myself!

Tomorrow, ducks, geese and turkeys....oh my! And hopefully pics!