Are any of you interested in gardening on a bigger scale than what you were say a few years ago?
We have decided that we are going to go bigger with outs. There are several reasons for that to primarily include providing fresh organic food for our families. With the expansion we are planning we will more than likely end up with more food than we can eat fresh or can for winter, so what do we do with the extra?
We see so many people out selling veggies on road side stand etc and they really make me angry. I know who many of them are and I know that they go to the Amish auction to get that food. Then when they set up their stands they are charging way more for the stuff that what they paid for it. I used to manage five retail stores so I understand profit and loss etc. I don't want to begrudge anyone a profit, but there comes a point where it's not just profit its greed for how much they can force people to pay to have fresh veggies. With that in mind should we end up with more than we can eat we are going to sell ours as well, but it will be dirt cheap.
I tried to stand back as far as I could so you could see this area. If you notice the beds on the right hand side of the picture, that row of beds will hold 7 beds spaced 59 inches apart, giving plenty of room for mowers and weed eaters. I believe by the time we finish up this area it will contain some 40 beds.
We got another bed put together last night, go our soil mixture in and planted some more things. We are a little slow getting some of the stuff out this year but with as crazy as things have been growing we decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Carrots, Radish and Parsley are in this bed.
This is the Green Bean patch that I have been taking pics of and sharing with you. This is what they are looking like now at maybe 6/7 days. This just isn't bad progress for a week at all. 
I'm not real good at guessing but I think these little guys are about a inch or so tall. It amazes me to watch something go from a seed to a plant in just seven days.
Here I was just getting a closer view so you could see the spacing we have between the beds. It is quite important for you to keep several things in mind when deciding on the spacing you want between your beds. Getting you lawn mower between them, weed eating and then also to have room to walk and work with each bed.
It is also important for you to consider the height of the beds you want. Last year these were all single level beds and it caused us huge problems. When they would go in and mow between the beds it would shoot the grass right in them. Our rider doesn't have a bagger so that just introduced all kinds of weeds in the beds. Granted because the soil is so fine they were easy to pick out, but if I can avoid picking a weed out of the beds I'm a happy gal!
This is the Strawberry bed that we did a massive amount of work on this year and it has really paid off. The plants are much bigger than they were last year, they are producing more and by the end of summer this large bed should be full and we will need to start another with all the runners they will be putting off.
I've been watching this little guy for a couple of days now, waiting and anticipating eating it. I know from others we have gotten out of this patch that this strawberry will be much better than any candy you could ever eat. They are so sweet!
This photo shows the cucumbers well on their way to climbing the arches. It just tickles me that it's working so well, there will be no bending over or digging through hills to find the cucumbers that are ready to be picked.
On this arch the end bed on the right has Loofah's in it, they are climbing now also and doing very well. Since this is an end bed we placed 4 Green Pepper plants on the right side of the bed. They don't need a lot of room and they don't vine so it was a good place to put them. We try to assure that each bed is used to its fullest capacity without crowding or making the plants suffer for to little room.
A closer view of the Loofah's climbing the arch.
These are some of the middle arches. As you can see the cucumber plants in the middle are not quite as big as the ones I showed you that are already climbing. This is one of the entertaining mystery's of gardens. All the cucumber seeds were planted on the same day.
I never get stressed when this happens, it is actually a blessing. It means that all the beds won't or shouldn't be producing at the same time. This gives me time to get some pickles made and not have to worry that they will all come due at the same time.
This big ol tomato is getting so large that it has leaned it branch out over the bed. In an effort to save the branch I put a little pink flower pot under the tomato so it could rest its weight there and not continue to strain the branch.
I'm having such fun watching this tomato also. It reminds me of a cartoon character, you know how they sometimes make them with a huge nose! Maybe like Mr. Magoo or something. :)
The flower bed to attract the Hummingbirds is really start to fill in. I love to watch these also, you plant the bed and think to yourself that is not near enough plants, the bed looks naked. But each day I can see them growing and filling the area up.
I couldn't resist taking another picture of the Bat Plant. I just can't get over looking at that and seeing those cute little faces.
Can you see the faces on the plants as well?
Here I wanted to show you that with these plants and it holds true with many others, the dead needs to be removed. If you notice the one right in the middle of the photo, it has to be removed. When they are ready to be taken off you can tell, not only by what you see but if you give the bloom a slight tug it should pop right off. The ones that are not ready will resist that. By removing these you keep the plant from trying to revive it and wasting energy there when it could be producing more blooms.
Also if you keep the dead picked off of it that enables the plant to bloom more!
Last but not least for this mornings garden walk is my Rose Bush. I've just been so happy with it, it does an amazing job of producing multiple roses at a time.
My hope is that if you are not planting a garden that my pictures will start to show you how very easy it is and if you are already planting gardens and enjoying their freshness I would challenge you to sell your extra at a very reasonable cost.
Many of our children, not to mention adults as well, are not healthy or eating healthy and most of our parents with kids can't affords to pay $3 for 4 tomatoes (that seems to be the going price here this year, if not higher)
When you take families that are in a financial crunch as most of us are these days then consider selling off that extra stuff at a price that people can afford. Your pocket book will weigh a little less but think of all the people to whom you could be providing fresh wonderful food to.
Have a Blessed day in our Lord Jesus Christ!
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