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gardening

Garden Harvest

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about our first ever vegetable garden here and here. Some people have been asking for updates, so I decided to show you the fruits…er vegetables of our labor.

 

We have had a really hot summer as well as very little rain. Also, I think some animals were eating some of my veggies, especially the corn. However, for our first attempt at this, I think we did pretty well. Here are some of the pretty vegetables we have harvested thus far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far, my favorite has been the tomatoes. They are so sweet. The kids LOVED the peas, and Brian has liked the zucchini because it means two of his favorite things, zucchini bread and zucchini frittata.

I am definitely looking forward to next year!

Captain Vegetable Part Deux: Planting a Vegetable Garden

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As I said in this post, planning the vegetable garden took
a little bit of preparation. After building the raised beds, putting them in the
right part of the yard, and filling them with the right material (in our case peat moss and mushroom compost as suggested by the Home Depot gardening expert), it was time to plant.
This garden, I knew would be a trial and error process as I am not known for my green thumb. I looked around the internet, Pinterest, and talked to family and friends about what vegetables work well for them, and decided to do a large variety of vegetables. My thinking was that if I tried a little of everything, I would have a better idea of what works in our yard, and only plant the successful plants next year.
After doing more research, and talking to a few more people, I decided to buy my seeds on Amazon. I bought this seed kit. For $12.41 plus free
shipping, I couldn’t beat the price. These are all vegetables that we like, so if they were all successful, nothing would go to waste.
To plant the seeds, all I did was follow the directions on
the back of each seed packet. On the back it gives suggestions for when, where,
and how to plant the seeds. Once planted, this is how the garden progressed.
Planting Day!
 Week 1
Week 2

 

Week 3

 

Week 4
Week 5

 

Week 6
So far, I have been amazed at how it has been growing. My expectations weren’t too high, as I have killed many house plants in the past, and we have not had much rain here. Take it from me (former black thumb), with a lot planning, regular watering, and weeding, this isn’t impossible.
We have already been reaping the benefits of this garden with some salad and a few recipes that I will be sharing soon.

Just Call me Captain Vegetable: Building a Raised Garden Bed

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Remember this? Anyway, for years, I have always
had a fascination with people who grow their own food. To me it is amazing,
plant seeds… wait… pick food… bring to kitchen. I have always been so envious
of people like Martha Stewart and Ina Garten, walking out their patio door
and cutting veggies and herbs, and bringing them in to use in their recipes.
Brian and I come from a long line of vegetable growers, so we thought that if
we ran into trouble we have plenty of family members to ask. So, we started
with a plan back in February. And now the dream has come to fruition. Check
this out!

How did we go from two boxes in the ground to a full vegetable garden?

Well at the risk of this
being a million word post, I’ve decided to break this up in sections for you.
Today we are going to talk about building a raised bed. This was a very simple project with the help of a little planning and some internet research. Brian was very excited to be using power tools!

Back in February, I
started to pin some raised bed ideas on Pinterest, as well as try and scope out
some sunny places in our yard.

http://www.verduragardens.com
http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/ultimate-raised-bed-how-to-00400000011938/page3.html

 

After some debating we used the plan from www.sunset.com. It seemed simple and versatile. We did, however, make a few minor changes. First,
we used pressure treated lumber instead of cedar to save some money. Also, we
did not buy the wire mesh to line the beds. We talked to our landscaper, and
after years of growing vegetables, he has never had any animals dig from
underneath to swipe vegetables.Here are some pictures of the building process. (Sorry about the iPhone pictures)

 

 

Here are the finished raised beds waiting to be transported
to their designated location.

 




And here they are just before planting filled with lots of
peet moss and mushroom compost.

 

Anyone else have a vegetable garden? What vegetables are you growing?