Home Garden

We dreamt of a garden years ago, but just didn't know where to put it.  You see it's not that we didn't have space or a good spot.  No, it was that we didn't want to plant a garden in an odd spot of our yard and take away from our expanse of green space.  Pathetic that it took this long since we have the space, but alas, we have a garden.

My husband built this beautiful planter (3'x8' I believe) over this "triangular" area where we had some annuals and perennials.  I just moved the perennials to the outside of the garden and voila, no money needed for annuals.

We filled it with half compost and half manure (the non smelly kind- didn't know there was such a thing!)

What we planted:
Tomatoes (two, established)
Beans (several varieties, I believe four varieties, two plants of each from seed)
Carrots (seed)
Lettuce (seed)
Radish (seed)
Green onions (from a green onion from the store after putting in water to grow roots)
Cilantro (established- do they die off after one large cutting?)
Chives (established- do they normally grow so slowly?)
Basil (established)
Some flowers thrown in for good measure

C has been a great helper harvesting and weeding all summer.  He gets very excited about it.  It's a bummer that what he's most excited about he has to still wait for- carrots!

Plant a garden next year.  Get your kids involved.  Keep it a manageable size and you'll have great fresh food and a great learning lesson all summer long.

 6/2: Planted for a little bit.  Missed earlier photos.

6/15: Tomatoes are already huge and crazy (they fell over shortly after this photo).

Everything else is well on it's way.

 8/20:  Most things are winding down and already harvested.  Tomatoes still growing and ripening.  Carrots haven't been harvested.  Cilantro either died or something but I had to pull it.  Does cilantro only give one cutting and it's done?  Green onions I just use for the green part so I cut and let grow all summer.

 Fallen tomato plants with more tomatoes on the way.  I got a gazillion!  I made salsa, spaghetti sauce base, tomato soup, and I plan on making pico de gaillo yet.  And of course I did add some to salads and sandwiches along the way.  We'll see what I have left after all that!

 More radishes (and lettuce) on the way

Here are some of my tomato projects.  I wish I had taken a photo of my plethora of tomatoes!

 Salsa

Spaghetti sauce base in the works (garlic and onion added and cooked for now).  Canned after cooking.

What fun things did you do this summer?  

Did you plant a garden?  What did you learn?

What fun things did you end up making or trying this year?