The Yadkin Yard is a Good Garden Yard -- Part 1

Awww, Farmer Lynn came in today with a basket of ripe fruits and vegetables.  Yellow squash, a watermelon, corn, and cooking tomatoes. The watermelon will need to ripen a while longer inside.

But I'm going to break into the corn tonight or tomorrow morning.  A lot of what he planted this year were heirloom seeds, from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Although the soil was broken up by about 7 passes with the tiller, it was & is still really hard red clay.  That was all we could manage for this year and we were late getting that much done.  Next year, we hope to have some compost mixed in, and then even more the following year.  Gotta be patient there, little garden.  But I think it's doing really well, especially
for being the first year!

Farmer Lynn has been bringing in a few sunflowers also.  The birds will eat most of the seeds outside, and that's as it should be, but we need to save some too for next year.  The sunflowers are so cheerful-looking.

The heirloom seeds this year are Country Gentleman sweet corn, Early Golden Summer Crookneck squash, Banana Melon, Black Diamond watermelon (yellow belly strain), Cucumber Delikatesse, Speckled Swan gourd, and Tiger Eye sunflower mix, all from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

This year, because the garden didn't get the water it needed and deserved, and because the red clay didn't have many nutrients despite the Miracle Gro applications, the garden struggled.  Farmer Lynn struggled to keep enough water out there to at least keep it all from dying.  Squirrels took over the tomatoes as soon as they got remotely ripe.  But we still had a good crop -- yay!!