visit http://www.harmonygardens.blogspot.com, and make an effort to go and see Dr. Calvin Bey’s garden tours this weekend.  Even if you don’t garden or don’t have any desire to garden, you should see it anyway, it’s a work of art.

Meet David Perreault.

He is a neighbor of mine who lives up the hill in the Wedington Woods area.  This year he started a garden in his front yard after coming down a few times with his family and asking some questions.  David said that he has tried two years in a row to grow vegetables in his yard with no luck at all.  Being intrigued by the raised beds, he ordered his own dirt and with a little help of some ice storm debris, he constructed his own.  He also amended his soil with compost and added some mulch.  

David has installed a U-shaped bed and added some drainage ports at the lower sloped areas of the bed.  He started all of his plants from seed in his garage.  He mentioned that a lot of his transplants sat in the ground for a bit, doing nothing, until the heat set in here in Northwest Arkansas.  In this region we experienced rain for a month which caused everyone’s plants to suffer and delay their growth.  

In his family’s garden they are growing:

Snap peas           Cucumbers

Corn                     Watermelon

Pole beans          Pumpkins

Bush beans         Summer squash

Carrots                 Potatoes

Bell peppers        Jalapeno peppers

Broccoli               Tomatoes

Lettuce/Kale       Onions

Sunflowers

Bell peppers/Jalapeno peppers

Tomatoes

Yellow crook-neck squash

Watermelon

His girls picking snap peas

It looks easy doesn’t it?

Potatoes

Carrots

Onions

Broccoli

This is Henry their garden mascot.

Bush beans

This is Corinne, sorry if I misspelled your name.  She was very proud to show me the flowers her and her sister planted for their mom for Mother’s Day.

You see, you don’t need that much space to grow a fantastic garden full of fresh produce.  The best part is, it only has to travel a few feet to get from your garden to your plate!  Thank you David and family for setting an example for  us all.

I believe this to be an isolated incident, I don’t believe all were affected by this the other night, but in my neck of the woods, Hwy 16 west, we received 15 minutes of hail followed by a torrent of rain.  It didn’t make sense to me, because it was 90 degrees that day.  The rain and hail came at about a quarter of two in the morning.  I forget that things like hail develop thousands of feet up, where it’s colder, go figure.  It was an experience though.  The only hail I have ever experienced in my life has been small pea-sized hail, the kind you see and go “Oh, it’s hailing!”.  This hail was quite large and it was as if it were being shot out of a gun at the ground.  Paul ran outside when it let up a little and grabbed a few pieces of it and took a picture.  All I could think was “PLEASE don’t break a window!” wether it be car or house.  Ahhh the midwest and it’s whack weather phenomenon’s!

Our babies, not so much anymore, received their first taste of the outside the other day while I cleaned out their temporary living quarters.  Oliver was really excited because he was able to hold onto one of them.

This photo looks a little strange, that’s not te chicken’s eye, it’s a little mohawk it’s getting on top of its head.

A temporary home for them.  They loved being outside!  We are working on making a temporary home for them in the existing chicken yard, it’s in the works.

For a limited time only, you have the opportunity to purchase and enjoy fresh, local potatoes which only had to travel 9 miles to the natural food store, Ozark Natural Foods, in Fayetteville Arkansas.  There were about  a half a bushel a piece of red and white potatoes.  And my goodness are they delicious!