So this week I’m talking about planting seeds.

For starters, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to do this step in spring, once the danger of frost has passed.

It’s July, and I’ve just gotten my seeds into the ground. But hey, on the bright side, I’m going to have a true harvest in late fall. I’m pretty excited about that. I can’t wait to pick pumpkins and make pies and muffins in late October and November, as opposed to my crops being ready for picking in August or September.

Every year I take my kids to church on October 31st, to what we call the Harvest Festival. It’s really just a fun time to play games, wear costumes, and collect candy. It never has anything to do with actual planting and harvesting.

This year it will be so fun, as a family, to have a true Harvest Festival and celebrate the miracle of pulling food from the ground, that started out as a simple little seed.

And call me a city girl, but for some reason, when I opened my packet of seeds for planting peas, I was shocked to see that they were just little dried peas.

And the pumpkin packet was just filled with dried pumpkin seeds…

And the watermelon seeds were… well… watermelon seeds.

And yes, to plant the sunflowers, we simply planted… sunflower seeds.

Weird.

I mean, I guess it’s actually the farthest thing from weird, and really makes complete sense when you think about it. But that’s just the thing… I’d never thought about it. All I’ve ever planted before are flowers, and they all have different types of seeds, so you never know what you’re going to see when you open up the little seed packets. It’s always an interesting surprise to see what each seed will look like.

So, it was just sort of strange this time when planting my new crops, to open up each packet and see seeds which I am already REALLY familiar with.

Silly little city girl. I know.

So first, as promised in my sketch, we planted Sunflowers in a row, 4 inches from the fence.

We planted them in a long row, all the way down.

And… we added a new hose to help with some of the watering.

This whole new garden area has it’s own little sprinkler system, working off of a drip line that goes to all the fruit trees. The sprinklers are set on a timer to water around 7pm each evening.

Next we planted our peas.

We put them about 3 or 4 inches in front of our row of sunflowers, and we planted them in a staggered double row, with each pea 2 inches from it’s neighbor, and the two rows 3 inches from each other.

I love having sweet little helpers who are so curious and excited about every bit of the work.

And then came our hills for pumpkins and watermelons.

Now, I have been advised not to plant too many of these because 1) I’m told these vines are going to go wild and take over, and that too many will just be too much, and 2) the bees will have a difficult time getting to the flowers to pollinate them, for the creation of the fruit, if the vines are all overtaking each other.

And let me just tell you right here… I had no idea that besides soil, water, and sun, I also need bees in order to get the pumpkins I’m dreaming of. Once some of my dear online gardening friends made mention of this in the comments on last weeks post, it really got me thinking and asking a whole lot of questions. My kids and I have been doing some research through picture books on gardening from the library, and online photos and information. I’ll save what we’ve learned about the development of pumpkins for an entire post of it’s own once mine start showing their flowers, but for now let me just say this…

For the first time in my life I understand why they call it, “the Birds and the Bees talk” and I’m sooooo amazed! I get it. It’s incredible. The groundwork has now been laid for my kids as they are understanding what it is bees do, and years from now, when it’s time, I’m totally going to build that bridge from pumpkins to people. Amazing!

Silly city girl.

I know.

So…

Each pumpkin and watermelon hill is about 3 ft. in diameter and has 6 seeds in it, planted around the perimeter of the dome. The seeds are spaced 6 inches apart from each other in each hill, and each hill is surrounded by a 4 inch wide, 4 inch deep moat.

I’m going to wait and see which hills seem to be growing the best, and at some point in the next couple of weeks, I’ll choose 3 hills to eliminate, for better spacing and pollination in the garden.

I’ve included all kinds of pictures and details about spacing and watering, etc. in hopes that my newly beloved community of gardening bloggers will offer input on any concerns you see with my work, my plans, changes that need to be made, and so on.

I’ve also included all these details, for my kindred city folk and fellow hindered gardeners, just in case my hope-filled saga is improving your interest and confidence in stepping outside with your kids and starting a garden of your own.

I have a lot of hope.

We’ll see what happens.

Stay tuned…

And by the way…

For those of you who expressed interest in some of my artwork, I have been taking steps to make it available for sale as prints. I’m still working out the kinks of an online process through which to make it available, but here are just a couple of the pieces from my collection to tease you with and to assure you… I am working on it!

“How Does Your Garden Grow”

“Garden Tomato”

“Garden Carrots”

I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

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