My mother-in-law and I tried our hand at a larger garden this year. A friend gave us three huge rows in his really enormous garden and then we went to town. We planted a lot this summer, and I think we were pretty ambitious for our first year. Did I mention that these are all organic as well?
Yes sir! Not a chemical touched these suckers. All natural. That also makes us pretty darn stoked.
We planted:
red, white and yellow onions
green and purple cabbage
beets
radishes
brussel sprouts
swiss chard
lettuce
spinach (which mysteriously never came up)
spaghetti squash
tomatoes
Getting over to the garden was a little bit of a challenge, but we made it work as much as we could.We had to water and weed and weed and weed. Next year, we are going to lay hay over all of it as soon as the plants start coming up--lesson learned. But what I have enjoyed the most out of all of it--hot days, dirt and all--was meeting my mother-in-law at the garden.
Some days I would get up, drink some coffee, throw on my rubber boots and get in the dirt. By the end of it, I was covered in sweat and happy as a clam. There is something about being in the dirt and gaining that knowledge of the earth that makes me happy. And doing that will someone I love sweetens it considerably.
We’ve had two “big” harvests so far and we are pretty proud of ourselves. For our first year, I am happy with what we have gotten. Some of our cabbage got totally eaten by bugs, but considering this was the first time that I have ever had any measure of success with cabbage, I’m calling it a win. Also? We got the cabbage plants for free, so honestly, double win!
The most successful plant thus far? The onions! We have a ton of onions drying out on the porch right now. We will certainly do those again. Now we’ve got tomatoes coming in and that has got us pretty excited. We planted 20 tomato plants in a couple of varieties and I am looking forward to them getting all red and plump! I have been eating a ton of tomato sandwiches this season with homemade mayonnaise....I never have gotten so much joy from a simple sandwich.
So tell me, what is something you do with the people you love that makes you happy and brings you closer? It can be gardening or cooking or fishing or whatever--I wanna hear about it! Leave ti for me in the comments section below!
Sorry it took me a while to find you. So impressed with your garden yield and all you are cooking up.
ReplyDelete