Strawberries and Blueberries

My strawberries are growing like nuts. Right now they are loaded with a ton of flowers and a ton of little greenish strawberries. I can't wait till mid June when they should be ready to eat.

My "little" patch has taken over the raised bed and now covering my gnomes. There are three there, somewhere hehe.

I am excited this year because two of my three blueberry bushes have flowers and the start of baby blueberries. This has me totally excited. We planted these almost two years ago and they were supposedly already two years old when I ordered them. I hate paying the price for blueberries at the store and sadly at the farmers market. I may not have much this first year, maybe just enough for one batch of muffins, but it is a start.

Top picture shows the flowers on one of my blueberry bushes. They are so dainty and kind of remind me of the top part of a jelly fish. The bottom shows the starts of the blueberry themselves.

Busy times in the garden ~ Tomato and Pepper planting time!

I'm sorry I have been away from my blog for a couple of weeks. It's been busy here between getting all the veggies and seeds planted as well as fixing up some of the flower beds and working on the remainder of our homeschool year.

Not to mention, this past weekend, we opened up our camp site. It is almost all set up, but still need to get the screen house up. It will be our home away from home on the weekends. Can't stay away longer than a few days because of the cats and gardens.

I got my shipment of the tomato and pepper plants I ordered through Burpee a couple of weeks ago. I ordered 12 Super Sauce Tomato plants and 6 California Wonder pepper plants. They came in one big box through UPS. When they were delivered, my UPS guy asked what was in the box, which turned into me showing him the big veggie garden. He was pretty impressed with what I can do in my mobile home park.

The plants are packed 3 to a pack and look like this:

I planted the tomatoes first and then the pepper plants the next day. I did it this way because I was so sore after bending over to plant the 12 tomato plants. Thanks to the RA, I don't push myself unless I want to be in bed for days.

I dig a nice sized hole for each tomato plant and add some crushed up egg shells that I have been saving all winter long.

Then I lay the tomato plants on their side in the hole, not straight up and down. Tomatoes will grow roots on their stems. so putting the plants on the side makes them more stable, stronger and gives them more access to nutrients in the soil.

Then I fill in the hole, being careful not to break the stem. Then I give them a deep watering and surround them with straw. I ran out of straw after planting 8 of the tomato plants. I also have straw covering my onions, snap peas and carrots. I use the straw to cut down on the weeds. What weeds do show up are easier to pull up.

My tomato plants look lost in all that straw, but they will get very tall really soon. My pepper plants look tiny too. Last year they filled out very nicely and we got tons of peppers from them.

I found some random squash or cucumber plants growing while I was planting the pepper plants. I managed to find 12 of them. My dad kept burying the over grown veggies in my garden, which annoyed me. I thought I managed to get them all dug up, but I guess I missed some seeds. I did take out all these seedlings and planted them elsewhere.

Let the planting begin and a few visitors

I spent yesterday and today in the garden planting the spring veggies. I have the sugar snap peas, carrots, onions, parsley, lavender, sage and thyme all planted. I need to plant the beets, spinach and a little more lettuce.

I then spent the next hour or so chilling out in the cool shade (It was in the 80's today!) watching the birds. Lots of them at my feeders. Chickadee's, Downy Woodpecker, Robins, Sparrows, Cardinals and Goldfinches. I texted Matt to bring me my new camera, but to be quiet so he doesn't startle the birds.

I love the zoom on my camera. I was able to sit far enough away to not bother the birds, but still be able to take nice up close shots. My old camera could never get this close. I loved watching the robins tilting their heads before they went after a worm or grub. It was like they were listening for the bug.

Of course now I have to fill up the sunflower seed feeder again thanks to the fat squirrel we have. I need to remember to get one of those cones to stop it from climbing up the pole to the feeders.

My beautiful daffodils are finally blooming. I need to plant more bulbs this fall and move the ones I have around. I can't wait for my lilies to bloom!