Garden work day!

I declared Wednesday a garden work day. I simply cannot do it all by myself with my bad back (18 years of being a nurse will do that to a girl!) and why should I with five strong men around the house? Doug got out the tiller and turned up the soil. It's our biggest garden yet! He just smiled and shook his head when I told him how long I "needed" it to be.

My seedlings have been outside "hardening off" for the last week and should be ready to go into the ground by the 20th.

The peppers and eggplant might need a bit more time in their peat pots. They're taking their time getting to the proper height and strength to endure the winds that come off the field.

My medicinal herbs are slow growers as well, and not all of them germinated as you can see from the container in the forefront of this picture. I'll try again to get some more to sprout, if they don't, the whole lot of seed packets are going back to the grower for a refund!

And speaking of seeds, these will go into the ground along with my tomatoes on the 20th.
This small $20 investment will give us more than a ten-fold return on our money~but the joy of planting and watching them grow is priceless (so is watching Danny dig into a big buttery corn cob fresh from the garden!)
Our fruit trees are coming to life!

Here is our big beautiful fig tree. Looks like we'll have a bumper crop this year!

And my Christmas presents from Doug are now sprouting leaves.
Here is my peach tree:

My pear and two apple trees:

I don't expect any fruit from the trees this year, but that's ok, I'm enjoying watching them grow for now. Signs of life are spring up all around and I'm as happy as a fat country girl can be!