Spring has officially arrived! I guess better late than never, huh? Well, we went from rain and cold for what seemed like an unending winter to now it finally being warm and sunny! This past week we’ve had the windows and doors open and little bare feet have been living it up outside. The grass is a gorgeous green, flowers and trees are budding into fragrant blossoms, and the birds are making their cheerful voices heard.
One thing that I absolutely love about warm weather is having the inside and outside kinda mesh together. The kiddos are able to run in and out pretty much as they please and even if I have housework to do inside, I can still enjoy the warm breeze blowing in.
Our tomato and pepper plants that we started from seed back in March were able to be hardened off little by little outside this past week. They’ll be ready to plant in our garden in the next week or so (ya, know, in our ‘spare’ time). Our plan is to plant at least 30 tomato plants and as many peppers as we can fit in our small garden plot. Last year we planted 24 tomato plants and canned salsa, spaghetti sauce, and diced tomatoes from them. Even that large amount wasn’t enough to last us a full year so our goal this summer is to produce enough tomatoes for all our tomato product needs for a year. The same goes for green beans. We actually just ran out of our garden green beans a few weeks ago so I know that if we plant at least one more row it should give us pretty close to what we need.
Willis and I have this vision to be able to grow as much of our own food as possible. Living where we do it’s kinda hard to have a mini homestead because of space issues but we are doing what we can with what God’s given us at the moment. We are actually able to fit a lot in our little garden space and it’s so much fun and satisfying to see our garden grow over the summer and produce food for our family and others. Last year we were able to grow: tomatoes, peppers, green beans, okra, carrots, zucchini, herbs, and started strawberries and garlic. This year we are adding in: winter squash, onions, greens, cucumbers, and harvest strawberries and garlic.
Whoop whoop!
I’m super excited about spring, gardening, fresh air, and sunshine….oh yeah, and dirty little kids!
Heartright Farm 