the unexpected domestic

the gardening diaries: quick update

I don't have much to say this week.  My focus has not really been on my garden, oops.  I started to weed a little bit last week, I think I already posted about that, but I haven't done much since then. 

It stormed yesterday and my corn stalks took quite a beating and are slightly leaning.  I also need to add some more supports to my tomato plants, they fell over and the tomato cages are just not strong enough to hold them up anymore with the weight of the tomatoes added to them.

This morning after I mowed the yard, I picked some beautiful veggies from the mini-garden.  It has always done well for me since I began using it as a garden space last year.  The chickens used to live there so I think that's the secret ;)

I also spotted some "volunteer" tomato plants on the side of the chicken coop that had blooms and some green tomatoes.  Jessica has gotten some of these before and they call them "chicken cherries." Ha!  I think these look more like grape tomatoes so I'm gonna go with "chicken grapes."

While I was mowing, I spotted more blooms on my raspberry bushes that I got a month or so ago.  They were almost dead at Lowe's and I picked two plants off the clearance rack so I paid almost nothing for them.  I planted them in the yard and I just let God water them!  My pastor's wife, Mrs. Angie, used that phrase with me once and I really liked it so I use it myself!

Ok y'all!  Until next time :)

the gardening diaries: abandoned (just for a few weeks)

I have not really abandoned my garden but I'm sure it feels that way!  Last week we went on vacation to the mountains and before that I had not really done much tending to the garden.  It rained half the time and the other half it was super hot.  Fortunately before we left, Mr. Randy used the tractor to plow(weed?) the garden and, wow.  It looks great!  At the least the first rows do.  There is this section at the back corner of the garden that is the tomatoes and peppers where a lot of weeds have sprung up.  I took a picture of the tomato patch before I started weeding it this morning.  I think the weeds are the worst on this side because the part of the field that touches the garden had not been bush hogged at the time that I planted my seeds and plants.  It was kind of the "wild side."  Since then, it has been bush hogged twice but there was nothing to do about the weeds that had grown into the garden except pull them up by hand.  Which I have now done once.  This morning. haha!  There is something really satisfying about weeding, too.  It's definitely hard work, but the weeks seem to come up fairly easy.  I just had to be sure to grip them at the base of the plant so I could pull up the roots, too.

Also, as I was going in, I took the clovers I collected to the chickens.  I love giving them clovers, it's probably their favorite snack!  I had been seeing glimpses of yellow/orange on my tomato plants in my mini-garden and I wanted to see how much longer I would have to wait for a lovely tomato.  As I was taking some pictures of those not-quite-red tomatoes, I saw a bright red one!  I was super excited and dug around in the green leaves and ended up finding four small red tomatoes!  They are cherry tomatoes so they are supposed to be that size.  I took them inside and washed them off then ate one.  It was delicious.  And sweet.  Kind of like candy.  I can just taste the bacon-tomato sandwiches that I am going to eat all summer!

daydreaming

I've been daydreaming a lot today.  it is so nice to have dreams, don't you think?  I believe it began w/an early morning trip by the farmer'smarket and then i ordered some plans to build a new chicken coop so now I'm dreaming about farm life again.  I really should have gotten a degree in agriculture or something :)  I also went to lunch with Jessica and that really does not help any!  We get to talking about all our interests and we just keep getting more and more excited.

I am very excited about my chicken coop plans!  They were created by Heather Bullard and I actually discovered this coop through the blog Happy Days Farm. 

I will do a fall garden of sorts along with a bigger herb garden!  A lot of my herbs are in my fancy pot stand that Kevin got me for Christmas but i believe that they will flourish if I plant them in the ground!

I feel like I have  to do list that changes daily.  It's a little shameful but I know I have so much in my house that I don't even use or sometimes even remember I have.  I really want to clear out my extra room.  I feel like if I do that, a lot of my distractions will go down.  You know, like when you have so much to do you just don't do anything? haha. that's where I'm at a little bit.

Kevin has helped me out with this distraction a little bit this week!  He has done the dishes for me this past week! :)  now, I really enjoy washing dishes, but they're kind of like laundry, the never really end.  I love that he does things like that especialy since then I have more time to spend with him!

Is anyone else daydreaming these days?

hello monday.

Good morning y'all!  It is another week here at the Haddox house and week seven of Kevin being home! I am getting so used to it and I love it!  Alright, let's go!

hello hot weather - it is a little cool at night now, but it is defintely hot during the day! this past saturday I was watering my plants and ended up turning the hose on myself.  It was magical.

hello backyard farm - due to circumstances we decided to not plant my big backyard garden, but I negotiated a small container garden.  I have this set out there by my chicken coop.  

hello coffee - I'm starting at the Second Street Bean two days a week! yay coffee. and seeing lots of people!

hello budgeting - I love putting together a budget and using spreadsheets and such!  I love reading blogs about tips and ideas on keeping all of that organized and everything.  Hopefully Kevin will get to go back to work soon so I'm preparing for that!

picture updates.