The Hanna Garden - June

The month of May was roughhhh. Maybe more on that another day another blog post. In the midst of low I felt so called by Jesus to go back to simple. Words that stood out to me:

• Homemade

• whole foods

• animals

• slow mornings

• Gratefuls

• documentation photography

• time with Sawyer + Zo

• warm breakfast

• podcast

• grounded

• Create

• legacy —> generations

• consistent

• Outside

• Blog

• Tidy

• Naps

• Organization

• energy —> life giving

• Books

• still

• comfort

• home

• Garden + CanNing

Here’s phase two of healing. (Yes I know I skipped phase one; again, another day another blog.) I’m inviting you to follow along with me here on the blog for the first official Hanna Garden! Disclaimer; while I’m surrounded by super successful amazing gardeners, I’ve never done this before and there is a SOLID chance it’ll produce no produce, but I’m here to give it my best try. If I’m being honest this is year three of starting the process. Year one, purchased all the plants and seeds. Year two, purchased all the plants and seeds + tilled the space. That brings us to here; giving my best shot on year three. Let’s see if we can get to canning season with any produce to actually can; but second thought, isn’t the most growth found in the process?

Buy supplies + seeds

seeds

seed starting mix

seed starting pots

tree trimmers

Start seeds

All seeds (listed at the bottom of this post) + supplies were purchased from Walmart + Menards.

First I filled the biodegradable seed starting pots with seed starting mix. I then poked the appropriate depth hole with my finger based off the back of each seed packet. Lastly, I put a layer of crushed eggshells at the bottom of each hole for nutrients, dropped in a seed or two + covered with soil mix.

Mini indoor greenhouse

After getting all the seeds in their pots I put all the pots in a kitchen serving tray with about 1/4 inch of water at the bottom. I covered with Press + Seal and placed the tray in a window with the most light away from the A/C vents. Until the pots were ready to be put in the ground I checked them daily always making sure they had water in the tray.

One week

Plants

All plants (listed at the bottom of this post) were purchased from Huebners, a local green house.

Tree + branch clean up

The biggest and most daunting of tasks for me up until this point. There was an over abundance of small trees that had started all over the garden space. I spent about 3 different mornings or afternoons trimming and hauling away branches.

Till round one

After getting all the trees and branches removed I spent a long day tilling the space. I used my Mom’s old tiller and wasn’t the most impressed with the job it did.

Whoops

And then on the last leg I somehow managed to bust off not one but both tires.

Two weeks

Gather more supplies

With the help of the husband we spent a Sunday hunting and gathering old ranch supplies to build the fence.

Fence

All fence credit 100% goes to Sawyer. Trust me, I was there for great moral support; ok and maybe to do a little coaching on making sure it looked just right.

Grass + weed clean up

By this point in the process there were many supplies strung out and some weeds already starting.

Helpers

Cow shit

Next I gathered a wheelbarrow full of dried cow shit to till in for more nutrients since the good ole Sandhills sand doesn’t provide much of that.

Till round two

Thanks to having amazing neighbors I found a much better tiller to borrow for round two to break down the cow shit + get a little deeper.

Snacks + more help

Seed starter + egg shells

Finally the fun part, putting it all in the ground. I dug rows, sprinkled more seed starter mix and crushed up egg shells. I then spaced out started seeds in pots. I used about 1/3 of each row for started seeds in pots and the other 2/3 of each row to put seeds directly in the ground. Unfortunately not many of the seeds started made it in the ground for very long. I’m going to have to do a little better research on that before next year to find out what I did wrong. I would love to start seeds earlier in the spring for all vegetables so I don’t have to buy any plants.

Seeds planted

two kinds of lettuce

pickling cucumbers

green beans

sugar snap peas

broccoli

two kinds of carrots

Plants planted

four kinds of tomatoes

zucchini

jalapeño peppers

two cauliflower

cabbage

Buy more supplies

tomato cages – worth noting, I did end up exchanging the circle kind for the square kind

markers

Said markers

Of course they had to be cute… at least until I ran out of label maker tape.

And with that June came to a close. Stay tuned for a monthly update by filling in the form below!

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