My Little Kansas Life: Garden Time!

So last year I did my best to get a garden in. Well actually my Mom put my garden in. There was no way I was organized with a newborn to do it myself so she took pity on me and helped me out. Then the 110 degree heat hit and not much survived. It was just too darn hot! Plus the rabbits, mole(s) and poor dirt quality didn't help much. This year I am hoping it has a different outcome. I don't have a tiller so I started digging it up with my spade as usual. My neighbor came home for lunch and felt sorry for me and lent me their little tiller. Best. Tool. Ever. I was so grateful to not have to do it by hand! I found really cheap tomato and pepper plants at a local farm store and grabbed them up. This way I don't feel so guilty if they die in the crazy Kansas heat. In went three Jet Star tomato plants and three Big Bertha peppers. I also planted some cilantro (NK), heirloom carrots (Burpee) and bush beans (top crop). So far so good. The strawberries that were put in two years ago tried to die out on me last year but seem to be trying to come back a little bit. I have had to cage one of my peppers and will probably have to do another as the resident rabbits seem to like them. I had some mites or something eating on everything at first but found a spray made of essential oils instead of dangerous insecticides and it seems to have taken care of them in one application. And I have to put some cheap fencing around it to keep out the dogs. They have no concept of where to walk!

My beans and strawberries

Then there is my lettuce! I grew lettuce at our last house and loved it. It was so nice to walk out my back door and pick a fresh salad for any meal. I had planned to put it in my garden with everything else until I came across the gutter gardens on Pinterest. I fell in love with them for many reasons. I didn't have to bend over to garden them and with a bad back this is a big plus, the rabbits couldn't get to it and it was just so fun! I told my Mom about them and she ended up finding an old chicken feeder at the farm and brought it to me. This is a little different than the ones I saw online but how we rigged it up works perfectly. Mike drilled some drain holes in the bottom for me and I spray painted them to cover the rust and just make it look more appealing with some leftover Rustoleum paint we had in the garage. We got some in expensive chain at Home Depot and used some hooks I had leftover from another home project to attach it to the deck railing. Voila! I planted two types of lettuce, salad bowl and red sails (both Ferry Morse) and it has come up beautifully. I need to thin it out a bit but I am so exited to have it right outside my back door!

My lettuce garden off the deck!

We have already had some really warm temps this Spring and I hope this doesn't mean our Summer will be full of excessive heat. But this is Kansas so if you can imagine it, it can happen. I am going to try and do my best to keep things watered and I have two kiddos who are old enough this year to help me do it. It is awesome to be able to show them where their food comes from and literally go from ground to dinner plate. If we get some crops this year, we are going to have so much fun picking and eating! Come on green thumb, give us something to work with!