My sister Harriet and brother-in-law George came to visit on Monday! There are few people I feel very comfortable talking with and my sister and brother-in-law are two of them. Their visits are moments I cherish. We had a great time visiting and laughing over lots of silly things! Roy and I are planning a “Family Reunion” at our house in late May with Harriett’s children and grandchildren and ours. We haven’t done this in a few years and several family members have been added in that time. Can’t wait to get together with all of Grannie Jo’s children and grandchildren and great grandchildren and one great great grandchild on the way! Our house is small but we have lots of outside space for playing and visiting!
Now on to our garden update!
We’ve learned that some crops do better when the seeds are planted directly in the garden instead of when the seeds are planted inside, sprouted and replanted in the garden. They are corn, okra, cucumbers, watermelon, and cantaloupes.
The peanuts planted down by the pond are not growing at all. I planted more peanuts this week.
The tops of the Brussels sprouts plants down there were chewed off a couple of weeks ago and the remaining stalk of the plants are gone now.
I planted carrot seeds this week where the Brussels sprouts were.
A week or so ago the watermelon vines started growing really well. A few days later the vines were almost all gone. Again some critter struck and there went the watermelons. For now, we’re putting pots over what’s left of the watermelon and cantaloupe plants at night to protect them from being eaten. So every evening we will be going down the hill to cover the watermelon and cantaloupe plants and in the morning we will be going down to take the pots off them.
The yellow onions are doing very well but they don’t look like much since the yellow onion is growing under the soil. The buckets are over the last of the watermelon and cantaloupe vines that have survived whatever animal is chewing on the vines. The little bunches of rocks are where the vines were before getting eaten. Looks like a little graveyard! Nothing like putting the most pitiful picture first!
We had several watermelon seeds left so we planted them in a pot with good soil. When they all sprout we will move them to a large area behind the blueberry bushes since the critters don’t seem to come up the hill. One little watermelon seed sprouted so far! .
All that is what’s going on in the garden down by the pond.
It’s a very different story in our main garden. Everything growing in the main garden is doing well and all seem to be happy little plants. The pine straw I added down each row is helping so much. We’re only watering every other day now instead of every day like we did before adding the mulch.
Here are photos with some descriptions of how that vegetable is doing! You can see how far they’ve come from seeds. They are right now about the size they would be when we previously bought plants from the store.
REGULAR TOMATOES AND CHERRY TOMATOES
Since they were planted from seed, they are now about the size I would have purchased plants in the past.
SWEET POTATO VINES
The vines are spaced far apart because the vines grow really long. 
ROWS OF OKRA, CAULIFLOWER, ARTICHOKE, SWEET POTATOES, BELL PEPPERS
GARLIC AND YELLOW ONION
The garlic and the yellow onion pretty much look the same above the ground!
BELL PEPPERS AND CORNSTALKS in the center in the first photo below
CORN STALKS
The tallest corn-stalk is the only one that was grown inside the house from seed. All the others started inside died. The rest of the corn stalks were planted directly in the garden from seeds.
BELL PEPPERS
They are all doing well. A few looked like some bug got on them so they were treated with Sevin dust.
One ARTICHOKE PLANT
Never tried this before, I am happy with how it’s doing.
CAULIFLOWER
It is really too early to plant Cauliflower and Broccoli so I am pleased they are growing well. There’s only 4 Cauliflower plants and 3 Broccoli plants so they are all on the same row.
BROCCOLI 
OKRA
All of these tiny okra plants are growing from seeds planted directly in the garden a couple of weeks ago. None of the ones I grew inside lived 😦 
EGGPLANTS
Nine plants, three in three rows growing well. 
CUCUMBER VINES
I have planted several seeds and only 5 have done well. I just planted several more and they are sprouting, yay!!
MILITON VINES
This is one vegetable I am really happy about. Roy’s mom always grew militons and I kind of feel like we’re carrying on a family tradition. We have four vines growing well in the garden and two militons inside that we’re hoping sprout soon.
REGULAR POTATO PLANTS
GRAPE VINES
These are over where Dora use to live but they are part of our growing experiments! Roy dug the grape vines up a few months ago and planted them into the top of a bucket with the bottom cut out. He was trying to get them into a taller amount of good soil. So far so good!
That’s it for the garden update! I found a program called Grammarly that is helping me with my writing. It doesn’t catch everything which was obvious when my last post included the word “bring” two times when I meant “brain”. Roy catches these things for me and I appreciate that so much.
Ya’ll have a Blessed Week!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 