June Garden Journal Challenge ~ off to a great start

I'm sure that all of you gardeners out there have been as busy as we have been this time of year.

When the frost relinquishes the earth and the chance of a killing frost has subsided, it's game on. One of the first things I think we all do is to get those seedlings started. For myself, the next thing I tackle with the enthusiasm of a teenage boy out on his first date, hoping to get his first kiss, is to do some upgrades in the garden.

If you all would like to join me, please do.

Felling these trees got a little crazy!

When cutting a tree down I always try and head it in a direction towards the woods. This makes clean-up a lot easier as I can leave some of the tree in the forest and deal with it at a later date. Avoiding the Willow was paramount. @farm-mom never gets too mad at me, but flattening the tree she planted years ago for her dad when he passed would have tested her patience. Yeah, she would have killed me.

The next tree I felled headed off into the woods, but look where the heck it landed. Being that I have a tractor now that mess was easy to get back in order.

Another item that I addressed was in this section of the garden.

By building a box entirely around this bed I hope that fewer weeds will infiltrate this bed. Despite my beautiful wife having the perfect size hands for pulling weeds, at least that's what I'm trying to convince her of, I think she'll appreciate this upgrade the most.

Love the stuff!

Last year we didn't even use this garden, but after a few hours of hobbitizing it's ready to go this year.

Last November we planted both Hardneck and Softneck garlic and both are looking great. Behind the garlic, you can see the garden in the above collage. We have our pickling cukes planted there.

Potato bed, every year the dirt gets richer and richer. You've got to love worms.

In the past, we have purchased our seed potatoes online. They were very pricy at $4.99 a pound. This year we bought them from an Amish farmstand for .99 cents a pound. I wish I would have found these folks sooner. Planting four different types of potatoes will give us a great variety for whipping up different dishes.

This garden is situated right off of our front porch. I extended this section of the garden by adding two more boxes. This will be the only place where we grow our peas and having just two boxes wouldn't have buttered the biscuit.

Here are some of the other boxes filled with delectable, health-giving, totally organic favorites.

In the past, we haven't had much luck with growing radishes. Being that radishes are one of our favorites we went by the saying, if at first you don't succeed try and try again. Well, that is exactly what we did and this year. Those crispy, pungent, sweet, and spicy balls of flavor are growing like never before. The only different thing we're doing this year is making sure that the radish itself is always covered in dirt. Before when the redhead started to peek out I gave it no mind. Keeping dirt heaped around the greenery seems to have made all the difference in the world.

Tomatoes, an all-time favorite of most gardeners will be plentiful this year.

After last year's abundant crop, we swore we would cut down on the number of plants. Impossible, after nurturing the seedlings for better than a month we just couldn't discard the extra seedlings. The previous year we had 18 tomato plants, this year we have 24 plants, and we gave 12 plants to our children. So much for cutting down.

I'm going to end this little tour of our garden on the highest of notes.

Apples set, apples galore,
apples on both trees, numbering in the hundreds like never before.
Before the trees set two
our mood was very blue.
Now, just as long as they continue to grow,
you'll know
because I'll be more than happy to show you
the next time I post.