Saturday, July 16, 2011

I'm still here! Summer Garden Update

I know I have been major MIA lately on this blog! I've just had to step back and take a break due to intense morning sickness that is just now starting to go away. I am 17 weeks along, and finally starting to get some of my appetite back as well as my energy. Taking care of an active toddler definitely makes being pregnant more of a challenge, so I have not had the chance to blog like I used to. However, I hope to resume a somewhat more consistent blogging schedule now that I am feeling better!

Our garden is doing great so far! We have been able to harvest lots of broccoli, and endless amount of lettuce (which really was a mistake because we could not eat it all!), several heads of cauliflower and cabbage as well as a few onions. I sorta let the garden go while I was feeling sick, and so I am embarrassed to admit quite a bit of our broccoli went bad before we could get to it! I also planted tons of tomato and peppers plants and they were doing pretty good despite me remembering to water them during dry spells.

Unfortunately, during this time we also took in another cat, Pickles. My mom, who is moving, asked us to take her in and we agreed as this is my childhood pet were we talking about. However, much to our dismay, we recently discovered Pickles has been using the vegetable garden as her litter-box!! I was so upset when I discovered this. Because of the risk of toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and to babies, we decided to stop harvesting and call it a year for this gardening season.

I am so sad, since I especially was looking forward to canning endless amounts of tomatoes and freezing all those peppers! I cannot even tend to the garden anymore, which makes me really disappointed. Thankfully, after some research, we discovered a way to restore the soil once fall comes. Next year we will have to build a fence of some sort to keep Pickles (and other neighborhood cats) out, but should be able to resume gardening then. It's definitely been a year of learning what not to do as far as vegetable gardening, so that will at least give us a leg up on the next season!

I really need to take some pictures of the state of our garden now that we have let things go. Our lettuce plants are going on 5 feet tall! The broccoli plants have flowered completely and are also very tall. Oh and the squash is spreading beautifully. At least it still looks pretty, lol.

3 comments:

Danna said...

Congrats on your pregnancy! I am happy to hear that you are starting to feel better! I would love to have a garden but tend to have a brown thumb :) So sorry to hear about the garden being used as a litter box, so sad. I can't wait to see pics of how it looks now!
Have a blessed weekend :)

Rachel said...

Thanks, Danna! I really need to get one those pictures before we have to uproot everything, lol. But at least we know what NOT to do now!

Miranda said...

Yay - congratulations :). I don't always find time to blog with one toddler, never mind a pregnancy on top of that with lots of morning sickness. You're doing just fine :).