By a stroke of luck (and some awesome planning by Jonathon), our first garden has been an absolute success! We are so thrilled with what it has produced so far. When I was younger, I never really appreciated our garden. Mom mostly took care of it. I had to occasionally weed it, but other than that, it was just normal for our family. Now that we have our own, I am practically giddy when Jonathon brings in the produce every day. It is so exciting to see something that we have put time and effort into actually work and provide for our family. Jonathon commented yesterday that he really understands the parables about the "sower" and "planting a seed" a lot better now. It is a lot of work, but the rewards make it all worth it.
Last month, our lettuce and spinach was amazing. We had a fresh salad from the garden nearly every day. For breakfast every morning, I would make my berry and spinach smoothies (which are delish!). It has gotten too hot for them now, but we are planning on doing a fall crop of spinach too.
In the last few weeks, the sugar snap peas have been perfect for eating. We get a big bowl full every other day. I blanch them and then freeze them in quart size bags to use later. My very favorite way to eat them is in Thai chicken stir fry (from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook). We had it last week, and I am so excited to be able to have it throughout the year with the remaining peas.
Surprisingly, the raspberries that we transplanted from my parents last fall are actually producing well too. We thought that it would take another year, so we definitely got lucky. This week, we also dug some red potatoes, picked our first two zuchinis, found some red tomatoes, and are anxiously awaiting the beans. We feel totally spoiled and LOVE every single minute of it.
This is what Jonathon brought in for dinner one night. I loved how colorful everything was.
We picked all of our cherries this week (with some help from Mom H.) and Jonathon made a yummy cherry cobbler with them. We have plenty more to make another one... if he's up for it!
*On one last note... we did have a major failure. Our carrots are terrible. We aren't sure what happened, but they are totally deformed. We transplanted them from seedlings started at the store, which could be a reason. I have also heard that carrots need sandy soil so they can grow long and straight, so maybe that is the problem. Anybody know what is going on?
2 comments:
you are a farm girl alright. I tried to garden one year and then everything was eaten by slugs. I gave up! Way to go!
My mom plants hers from seed. Whatever kind she gets usually grow sort of medium size and seem to be rounded on the bottom I think (with a few funny looking ones mixed in occasionally Even if they look funny, homegrown carrots are still tasty!
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