It's Planting Time Again

Now that we are in May we feel we are safe against any frosts so the time has come to plant the beds in the orchard.  There are five beds to be planted this year.  We are planting much of the same veggies that we did last year: three kinds of tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, okra, sweet potatoes, green beans, lettuce, two kinds of carrots, beets, zucchini, three kinds of squash, two kinds of cantaloupes, pumpkin, two kinds of watermelon, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers and corn.  We did eliminate potatoes, peas and onions.  The onions were a complete fail the last two years, the peas did not produce as much as we wanted and the potatoes were too expensive to grow compared to what it costs to buy potatoes.  It was a group effort this year;  George and Lisa have planted by themselves the past couple of years but this year Tim and I were actually in town so the four of us were able to plant everything in a little over two hours.  George did buy this great seeder that was going to make planting all the seeds easier but the machine did not work with the kind of dirt we have in the orchard.  So, we did it the old fashioned way, with a hoe, a couple of spades, a shovel and our hands we dug, put down the seeds and buried them all with the hopes that everything will grow.  We are staggering some planting this year so we do not get a bunch of the same veggie all at once which means we will have another couple of smaller plantings to do soon.  Now all we have to do is wait!