Goats and Gardens

 I grew up in the city, but I always loved animals and later on came to love plants. It's weird, especially if you knew me personally. I don't seem the type.  Breaking molds here people! We had Pygmy goats previously given to us by a family member and  good friend that had goats for a while. We just bought a place with land that needed to be cleared and since we didn't  have money for a tractor, we decided that goats were perfect for our need. They were.......... until the drought last year. They were constantly trying to eat my " good plants" because there pen wasn't sufficient for them at the time. I really didn't blame them, but it was nonetheless very trying on my patience.  We gave them to an older couple who had land and were goat free for around 8 months or so, until a few days ago. I got a cute baby goat itch and we HAD to get some again . They are so soft when they are babies and beyond cute. I could hold one all day long.   I have yet to name them because we are firm believers in naming our pets something strange and different, which takes time. Our last goats were named " Goatticus" , " Big Dirty" and " Jodie Foster" ....don't ask. 

Three Sisters

  I know...Right....

 Since we moved here I have wanted a real garden that we could eat things out of. I am taking baby steps towards this because I don't want to invest a lot of money into something that I could potentially suck at. I am decent with whole gardening thing so far. Rooted a few trees and even diagnosed some problems with a Japanese Maple, Rose tree and newly planted willow trees; which are all  currently thriving.  Today after playing with goats the son and I went to check on our plants. They had a vegetable hiding under the leaves! I got more excited than I should have. My son looked at me like "what is wrong with you?".   

It's the tiny yellow thing. Crooked neck squash

Silver Queen Corn is starting to pop out

A row of Mammoth sunflowers

Mammoth Sunflower

Sugarbaby Watermelon slowly growing

I have a few other Sunflower patches, but these seem to like this area the best. Next year I am going to be a little stricter about the "Three Sisters" gardening plan   I think the crops will produce better because years in practice have shown it definitely works. We also have zucchini, strawberries and eggplant in another bed.   Next year the garden will be bigger, this was just a test garden to make sure I wasn't going to kill off everything and somehow  make the earth go off it's axis and throw us into an ice age.   I am happy to say that so far we are doing pretty good and there has been no ice age!