A blog update is long overdue, so I thought I'd share with you all one of the many things I've been working hard at over the past few months---gardening! Those who know me well know that there are few things I enjoy more (except for spending time with my family and friends, of course!) than digging my hands in the dirt, planting things, and nurturing them as they grow! I've definitely become more serious about it over the past couple of years, but I remember enthusiastically helping my parents tend to their vegetable gardens each year way back when I was a little girl. I'm no expert, but I sure do enjoy it!
My dear husband and I have attempted a vegetable garden most of the 9+ years we have been married, with varying levels of success. I grew some beautiful heads of broccoli in containers when we were town-home renters, but the cucumbers I planted during that time were a very sad sight! When we bought our house, I was equally excited about starting an in-the-ground garden as I was decorating and settling our new home. With the help of my father-in-law, my husband and I dug up a giant rectangle in the yard which we've modified and added on to some throughout the years. Our soil is not the greatest for growing most things (very sandy), but we amend it a little bit more each year and have had some great successes as well as failures. I always tell people who want to learn more about gardening that it is very much a continuous learning experience and a whole lot of trial and error!
Last year's garden was amazing, so I was excited to hopefully harvest such a bounty this year. Like last year, I've started most of my vegetables from seeds except for an heirloom tomato and a Serrano pepper plant. Especially in terms of tomato plants, I've found that starting from seeds produces plants that are healthier and have less trouble with diseases, etc. Makes sense because plants sold at stores are around a bunch of other plants----lots of opportunity for disease exposure.
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| I used egg cartons to start many vegetable seeds indoors in March! |
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| Eggplant seedlings |
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| Planting green pea seeds in the raised bed! |
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| Baby tomato plants (started from seed), ready to go into the ground or larger containers... |
In our "main" vegetable garden (we started another, smaller vegetable garden in another area of our yard just a couple of days ago), in the ground as well as in containers, we have growing over thirty tomato plants (mostly Rutgers variety, but also some Roma, cherry, and Better Boy). We use plenty of tomatoes when we cook, and I hope to can a great deal of sauce, salsa, and chopped tomatoes. We also currently have fifteen eggplant plants in the ground, about a 4'x4' patch of bush-type green beans, a similar-size patch of spinach, and one Nepali squash/pumpkin plant (I say "squash/pumpkin" because I'm not 100% sure what it is! My father and mother in-law brought us the seeds from Nepal). Within the "main" vegetable garden, we also have a raised 8'x4' bed which currently contains three cucumber hills, two rows of okra, and one row of green peas. Another raised bed crafted out of cinder blocks is devoted to pepper plants----it's full of jalapeno, Serrano, Cayenne, Habanero, and other hot pepper varieties. We also have a few containers throughout the "main" garden containing marigolds, cilantro, dill, and basil.
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This photo of our "main" vegetable garden is not the most recent. Will update soon! :)
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| Again, not the most recent picture, but you get the idea... ;) |
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| Green beans, oh my! |
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| Tomato blossoms |
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A spinach harvest...
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| Beans... |
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| Beans... |
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| and more Beans!!! |
As I mentioned, I started another smaller vegetable garden in another area of our yard which my husband and I had dug this year and originally intended to use for perennial flowers. Unfortunately, my flower seedlings looked pretty pathetic after transferring them to the garden (a few *might have* survived had I given them the chance, but I figure the majority would have perished), so the decision was made to try again another year with already-established flower plants. Once I ripped out the dead/dying flower seedlings, I planted in that garden six cucumber hills (our middle son LOVES cucumbers!), three Nepali squash/pumpkin hills, more hot peppers, and 4'x4' patches of green beans, eggplants, and okra. If everything grows as I hope, we should be enjoying a great deal of home-grown goodness soon! Currently, in our "main" vegetable garden, the green beans are in high-production, and the cucumber and tomato plants are full of flowers. We've harvest spinach a couple of times, and I think we'll harvest once more before pulling the plants and planting something else. We've also picked a couple of peppers already.
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| The site of vegetable garden number two! (Not planted yet in this photo) |
Our perennial flower bed in the front of our house doubles as our herb garden. I'll share a photo in a future blog post! In addition to the Black-Eyed Susans, Black and Blue Salvia, red and pink roses, lavender, purple Coneflowers, Columbine, Butterfly Bush, and Barbara's Buttons, we have rosemary, thyme, oregano, lemon-balm, sage, peppermint, sweet mint, chocolate mint, and bee balm growing there. A large container on my front porch, right next to the flower/herb garden contains yet another cucumber plant, already vining up the trellis!
Last but certainly not least, we started a strawberry patch this year although it currently only contains three plants. It's a start though, and I know the plants do love to spread! We've munched on a grand total of three, red strawberries so far, but the plants are full of baby berries!
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| Strawberries... |
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| First pick! Tart and juicy! :) |
So yes, the garden (and the kids, work, house, life in general...) has been keeping me very busy, and I look forward to sharing its progress (and who am I kidding...failures) more regularly with you all in this blog. If I have any wisdom to share to the new gardener along the way, I'll be sure to do that too! Feel free to do the same---I'm always grateful to learn something new. :)
