Wagon Wheel Homestead

Verse of the day: Job 19:25

We are days away from May 1st. I have been out in the garden a few times so far. The weather is picky, from really nice hot days to cloudy and excessively rainy. The garden coming alive is always an exciting thing! It means winter is over and we can finally see beautiful flowers and start producing food soon.

My Asiatic lilies are coming back up beautifully. Some lag behind every year so I never know how many will come back right away. One year I had 36 plants come back up the following year! They produce like crazy every year and I haven’t needed to buy any bulbs in a few years now. I have a wide variety of colors with them. If you would like to see past versions of the garden, make sure to check out @WagonWheelHomestead on YouTube.

The oregano is coming back all too quickly. I have tinned it out once so far. Oregano is part of the mint family, and it WILL take over the garden if you let it. I used to not use a ton of oregano until I started diving into some Greek cooking last year. Now I fly through oregano like crazy. It’s a wonderful herb too for herbal medicine. Thankfully my cousin sent me some dried oregano from her garden over Christmas as I was running out and didn’t have enough until harvest of this year.

We have a pear tree in the back part of our yard. I am not sure what variety it is. Sometimes we get pears and then other years we do not. Pollination is a massive part of fruit trees. I can guarantee we have more than enough bees and such around us to pollinate the flowers. Having a pear tree was not my choice. It was here when I moved into this house. I am not a fan of the pears. I never have been, even as a child. However, what I do like to make is pear cider in the Fall. The taste is similar to apple cider once you add all the spices in. Very long process but totally worth it and a good way to use up produce! It’ll be a surprise come late August/early September when it is time to harvest them.

My seedlings are starting to turn yellow slightly. It is not time to put them out in the garden yet. We had two weeks of amazing weather and now it is getting cold again. That is very common for my area around this time. I am going to add a tad bit of fertilizer to the water to help them develop and ensure they have all the proper nutrients.

When it comes to feeding the soil, I do NOT use any artificial chemicals in the garden. We have to keep in mind, whatever you feed your plants, the plants take that in. When it comes to edible plants, you wouldn’t want to eat something that is laced with artificial chemicals and pesticides. Organic gardening is the best way and also keeps the ecosystem within the garden alive and well.

I had a few seeds that decided not to germinate this year. I’m not stressing over it this year because I should have enough plants and produce by the end of the season.

There is just something different about watching plants grow start to finish instead of buying starts when I do not have too. Knowing you have complete control over the whole process all the way down to the soil they are started in. Brings so much joy, and I know fellow gardeners can understand that feeling too! I am not anti-starter plants, but if you can start everything yourself, why not. It can be a bit of a challenge at first, but once you got it down pat, it’s amazing to do and much cheaper in the long run.

I can’t wait to share pictures and enjoy the beauty of the garden this year. Gardening is only for a season, take it in and appreciate it before winter comes again. If you want to get into gardening, for starters, look into your growing zone. With the technology of Google, it’s much easier to figure that out in a flash. Just Google “what is my growing zone in (insert your zip code)”. I live in zone 6B, so on average I have around 185 days give or take for gardening.

Next figure out what you want to grow! Options are truly limitless in this day and age with easy access to seeds. Do some research on the varieties you want to grow and get to planting! I pray God blesses all of our gardens this year to be abundant with anything we grow! Happy gardening.

God Bless!