Garden Harvest

Even though we cut back on the garden this year, we had a good crop of what we did plant. Also helped that the peach and nectarine trees were fully loaded even though they're only 4 years old. Plan is to plant 3 or 4 more fruit trees this fall and shift the garden to the lower part of the yard. 

Below are photos of what me and the kids picked this morning. I feel the sudden urge to make salsa.

Jalapeños are yummy. 

Jalapeños are yummy. 

Some different varieties of cherry tomatoes. 

Yummy!

Yummy!

And here are their big brothers and sisters. 

Big boys! 

Big boys! 

Salsa photos coming soon. 

My Very Own Frankenfood

For the most part the garden has been a smashing success. Still, there are some things that haven't worked out and I'm taking note so I don't repeat the same mistakes next year.

Like my squash.

See the above photo. I planted the squash too close to a zucchini plant. The result has been my own kind of freakish frankenfood. Aside from looking weird, the skin of the squash is so think, it's nearly impossible to peel. Which sucks because squash is one of my favorite foods and this year's crop is pretty much uneatable.  (Note: Marathon Girl did cook one up and the taste was fine but that hard peel just sucked.)

So next year I'm planting the squash and zucchini farther apart. Maybe on opposite sides of the garden. And if my squash does cross pollinate with something, I hope it turns into something like this.

 

 

Garden Update: Cabbage

Happy to report that the garden is doing well. Most of the food we've been eating for dinner comes from the garden and we haven't had to buy fresh vegetables from the store in several weeks. This year I've also been able to grow some food that I have tried before. For example, yesterday we picked and ate the first cabbage I've ever grown. It tasted great. From the looks of things there are another five cabbages on the way. Considering this is my first attempt growing cabbage, I'm thrilled with the results thus far.

Life in the Garden: Week 1

A view of our garden, after planting.

One of the things me and Marathon Girl both like to do is garden. At our old home, we had a small garden in the back yard. It was smaller than what we wanted but it was a small home with a small yard so we made do with what space we had. At our new place, the yard is roughly three times as big but since it was a new home, the yard wasn't done and there was no space or good ground for a garden. We've been saving up money in the (almost) two years since we've moved in order to get a yard that the kids can play in and a garden space for us. Over the last couple of weeks we've removed rocks, put in some good soil, and planted grass.

Saturday I (finally!) planted the first half of the garden. There are now rows of lettuce, beets, radishes, onions, cabbage, carrots, and Swiss chard. Basically I planted all the hardy and semi-hardy plants that need to start growing before the weather gets to warm. Next week we'll add tomato plants, peppers, squash, melons, beans, peas, and corn. Most of the veggies I planted we don't have a lot of experience growing. Most of them are an experiment to see what we can or can't grow well in this area. In our last home we learned what worked and what didn't and after our first year could generally plant year after year successfully. I'm just glad we have the space to try new things. If three-quarters of what we planted turns out, I'll consider this part of the garden a smashing success.