I had had huge intentions this spring for a giant garden. Where we grew tomatoes and kale and beans and squash and garlic and potatoes; from which we canned and froze and stocked our pantry and root cellar for the winter. But as we got closer and closer and life got busier and busier (instead of simpler as we had envisioned), it just didn't happen. The boys and I had started some vegetable plants by seed, but only the hardiest survived (as they were largely unattended). We did manage to build raised beds -- three of them. But the soil we bought was mediocre; we realized it in mid-June when our small starts turned yelllow and failed to thrive. And so we amended the soil as fast as we could. The little plants we successfully started on our own -- tomatoes and cabbages -- were waiting on a fourth bed to be built and were quickly outgrowing their little containers. So the Daddy punked them into our soon-to-be perennial garden. And then we mostly ignored them.
But look. We've had success. Even with our slow start and our half-witted gardening techniques.
picked by a friend
So far our garden has produced 4 cucumbers, 1 zucchini, 2 yellow squash, 4 cherry tomatoes, a bunch of snap peas, a good handful of beans and a TON of kale.
We have many many more tomatoes on the way (if the warmth can hold out just a little longer), more zucchini, more squash and cucumbers, plus some purple cabbages!
And best of all: pumpkins. Two of them. Look at these handsome devils. The children LOVE these little guys.
It really is satisfying to eat from your own garden, grown with the help of your own hands (or by the grace of God in this case). Everything we cook from our garden is prepared with that much more tenderness, and eaten with that much more awareness. And it makes everything taste that much better.
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