Morning is my favorite time of the day

to work in my garden.  We have a large walnut tree

that shades the area for a couple hours making

it much cooler.  I can hear the birds singing and it's

a perfect time to talk to the Lord.

I have a few things sitting by the door so

I'm ready anytime to step outside and tend

to my fruits and veggies.

I like to wear these polka dotted rubber boots.

 It keeps the ticks and chiggers from hitching a ride on

my legs and later ending up who knows where, if you

know what I mean.

Those of you who do not live in tick and chigger land, may not 

understand this problem.  

Consider yourself blessed. 

These are what I brought to the garden this morning.

 My tomato plants needed some stringing up since 

I didn't use cages this year.  They were looking

pretty wild.

The gloves are for picking off the big fat juicy

Horn Worms.  I just can't get myself to touch them

with my bare fingers.  Ugh!

Have you ever tried to pick one off?  

They sometimes grip themselves so tightly onto the branch, 

that it requires a yanking that

results in... well, I don't need to get into all

the details of hunting for Horn Worms.

Yesterday I noticed some of my tomato leaves were eaten

off a couple of branches.  A few Horn Worm droppings 

were resting on the leaves below.

A sure sign of a Horn Worm.

I searched and searched.

NOTHING!

I hate it when that happens because that means I 

could come out the next morning and the

whole plant will be eaten.

So I got up real early this morning and to my

surprise I didn't see anymore damage.  I still looked hard.

Perhaps one of the friendly birds taught him a lesson.

Here's a picture of one of those yucky things.

I have had some that were 3-4 inches long.

Now tell me, would you touch one with your bare

fingers?

Oh, this is just too much for me.

Enough of that!

I thought I would share a few pictures of my

garden.

Now, remember from a previous post,

most of my plants were orphans rescued from

my friend's greenhouse after the flood this last Spring.

They were almost burnt beyond saving because

when the power went out, the big fans that keep

the greenhouse cooled down obviously didn't work.

So, all this to say, the Lord has been good and

has caused these plants to bounce back and

produce.

Looking down my raised beds.

By the way, raised beds are my favorite way

to garden.

You can see how I tie up my plants here.

Purple Basil

Sweet Genovese Basil

I'll be making lots of Pesto and putting it

in the freezer for this winter.

Sugar Baby Watermelon

I harvested this one yesterday for our

weekend.

Crimson Sweet Watermelon

Not quite ready yet.

Bed with the peppers.

I planted them all in the same box.

This was a last minute decision and probably not

the best because I'm sure there was a little

cross pollination going on there.

These plants were given to me and I had to 

prepare a lasagna bed really fast.

Cayenne Peppers

Bell Peppers

I'll wait until these turn red.

Did you know that is not good to eat green

bell peppers?  The best is when they're red.

I just learned that.

I also have jalapeno and Anaheim peppers.

I couldn't get a good picture of them this morning.

This is a Bumble Bee doing his job on the Cucumbers.

I also planted:

Potatoes - Not such a great crop,

I will try a different method next year.

Green Beans - pretty much a total failure.

I'm learning that here in Tennessee it's best

to wait until July to plant.  Last year my Spring

planted crop failed, so I replanted in July

and I had the most beautiful, pest free Green Beans.

Tomatillos - Beautiful plants but no fruit.

These were also a victim of the flood.

Onions - Okay crop.  It was our first

year for onions and we know what

to do different next year.

~

Well my friends, I got a couple bites out there this morning

but I came in, rinsed off and used some

of my friends homemade healing salve.

So soothing!

Thanks Donna K!

 ~

I better sign off,

Breakfast is ready!

Warm Country Blessings,

Christa

 

A couple weeks ago, my kids and I went

cherry picking at a friend’s farm.  Christy

said he had picked as many cherries as she

wanted and gave us the go ahead to pick

as many as we wanted.

 We picked and…

 

we picked.

We ended up with about 6 quarts, enough for

6 delicious homemade pies.

We could have picked many more, but the rest

 were up too high and couldn’t be

reached.

 

Aren’t these beautiful?

The best part of the day was spending

time with my three kids, laughing as we

picked those delicious cherries.

I’m so glad you stopped by,

be sure to come back for a wonderful

Cherry Pie recipe.

 

~

Christa

 

 

Our Gardening Journey

Ten years ago, my husband and I

thought it would be a fun to

have a garden.  We were living in

California at the time and had no

experience at all in the art of

gardening.  I was

determined to make it work.

Do you know that we did not

harvest a single vegetable out of

that garden?  Not even a radish!

Our kids working hard for those veggies that never came

Our Children worked very hard

on that garden.

 Luke

Two years ago, I thought we would

give gardening another try.

My husband was a little hesitant since

our first attempt didn’t go well

at all.

We were still living in California

and my reason for this adventure was

different than before.  I wanted

my kids to learn how to grow their own

food before they left home some

day.  We were so spoiled with our

three wonderful markets around

the corner from our house.  Fresh organic

vegetables were right there at our

finger tips.  When they were sold out,

I’m embarrassed to say we got

a little huffy.

There was something wrong with

this picture don’t you think?

So…

we decided to use raised beds

and we planted all our seeds and

Plants.

Do you know what happened next?

The Lord decided we were going to

Move. 

Our real estate agent came over to

Give us our list of “to dos” before

Our house went up for sale.

Do you know what he said to us?

“The garden has to go!”

Out came all the plants and in came

the sod.

Next attempt?

Let’s try it again,

In Tennessee!

 

 

 Luke building our raised beds here in Tennessee

last year.

 

Last year was our first year of

gardening in Tennessee.

The Lord blessed the fruits of our

Labor.

Beautiful veggies came out of our

garden.  Of course some didn’t make

it, yet others were in abundance.

 We stared with four raised beds

And a plowed 20’ x 20’ plot.

Everything that grew in the raised

Did well, however, the other not so

Well.

This year our friends, the Martins, blessed

us with 4 more raised beds.

The challenge was to fill them with

good soil.  Friends of ours

donated lots of goodies to make a

lasagna garden inside those empty boxes.

We are praying the Lord will make

 those veggies grow.

 We cover the ground between and

outside the beds with straw to keep

down the weeds and help us after

the rain with the mud.

 Straw is also used in the beds

for mulch, which keeps the plants

from losing moisture from the hot

weather.

 One of our church families was so

Generous to give us tomato, pepper,

cucumber, watermelon, tomatillos,

basil and apple mint plants from their

greenhouse.

 Our potato plants are already flowering

and the plants themselves look very healthy and…

no potato beetles!  Yet.

Please Lord, keep the beetles away!

We planted potatoes using the straw

method.  First, we put down newspaper

right on the ground.  Then we placed

the seed potatoes on the newspaper

and covered them with a thick

layer of straw.

Some say this method doesn’t work

well but our soil is very rocky and

clayish so we decided to try

it this year.

Beautiful pepper plants!

We planted sweet, Cayenne, Anaheim

and Jalapeno peppers.

I’ll be canning some wonderful pepper

Jelly with the jalapenos and roasting

and freezing the Anahiems.

As my friend Cathy S. would say, “Yummo!”

We’ll be planting Green Beans and

Okra this week.

Did you know that I’ve never eaten Okra?

Oh dear!

~

Happy Gardening, my dear friends!

~

Remember, we plant and water, but it’s

the Lord that makes it grow.

~

Christa