So, remember at the beginning of the year, I had listed as one of our goals that we would not be nearly as slackerish this year on our veggie garden as we were last year? Due to lots of major tasks we ended up doing last year: storm clean-up, staining the barn, and a boatload of wood chopping, the garden last year was sorely neglected. Here’s how it looked by August or so.
Why, yes, since you asked, I am embarrassed by that picture. 🙂 But even with our sore neglect, we managed to get a few things in the cellar and to freeze a few bags of veggies too.
This year, however, we’ve resolved to do things closer to the right way. On Sunday, third daughter and I planted 76 little pots of seeds that we hope and pray will turn into a bountiful array of veggies.
Some of our pickins’ ?
2 kinds of cucumbers, 4 kinds of tomatoes
a variety of peppers, Walla Walla onions
3 or 4 varieties of lettuce
green beans, carrots, peas
pumpkins, watermelon
broccoli, cauliflower
honeydew, potatoes, yellow squash
We’re really working hard this year on tending well to our “garden”, making sure to water the seedlings daily. As of yesterday, the snow is gone and we can actually SEE our garden – WOOHOO! So far, our hard work is paying off, as some little baby lettuces popped up a mere three days after we planted the seeds:
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, we’ve always had a small garden, but really are not very educated at all in working a large garden meant to provide a year’s worth of food for a family of six . But our goal this year is to provide enough organic, non-GMO veggies to feed our family for an entire year. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂
Are you putting in a veggie garden this year? If so, how’s it going? If not, how come?
I would love to start a veggie garden, but it would have to be a container garden on the deck. And on top of that I would also need to learn how to not kill all plants. 🙂 Maybe I should just start with herbs before I move onto anything that might require staking, etc.
My grandfather has a hobby farm and they grow so much produce. Lettuce, peas, beans, carrots, potatoes, beets, corn (sometimes), cucumbers and tomatoes. We get lots of cucumbers, beets, and tomatoes for pickling, and it’s definitely worth it!
Herbs are a great place to start b/c you can just set them in a little pot on your counter or a table in a sunny area. You should try it and see how it goes! 🙂
We’re actually planning on getting started this week as they’re calling for more blasted snow on Sunday! We do need to get started so we can get the lettuce planted as we love walking out to the back yard and picking what we need for salads for dinner. That said, if we can do a larger garden then I’m confident you guys can. 🙂
NO!!!! Really – more snow?? Yeah, our lettuce got confiscated by bunnies last year, so we didn’t have that pleasure last year, but we’re putting preventative measures into place this year. 🙂
This year we’re doing our first garden in our new home and we’ve just barely started with a few pots inside. It’s amazing how fast they sprout!
That’s awesome, Kara! You’ll have to let us know how it goes. Best of luck to you. 🙂
We are putting in our first garden this year, but we’re waiting another week or two. It needs to warm up just a little!
Yeah, ours is inside for now, and I’m guessing it will be a good month before we can put it outside, so, we’ll see. 🙂
I don’t have a garden, but love fresh non-GMO veggies. I love the life you are creating and that you are living off the land. You are truly inspiring! And I think you’d be a great blogger to have dinner with 😉
LOL, funny. I do love to cook and to eat, although I’m a bit split personality on my health choices; an awesome fresh salad one night, and a giant plate of mozzarella sticks the next, but, such is life. 🙂 If you’re ever in MN, Melanie, you’ll definitely have to stop out and see our place, and we’d happily meet up if we are ever in OR too!
Hey Laurie and way to go on the garden. That’s awesome. You’re doing what many would love to do and I hope you have a great crop of everything this year 🙂
I myself, cannot have a garden since I am an apartment dweller. That being said, there are lots of community gardens in Montreal, but they have a long waiting list for empty plots AND I would eel weird about having one, when someone with better gardening skills than me could benefit and care more for their garden than I would.
I’ll just stick to the farmers market and the organic store down the street from my place.
Have a great weekend Laurie and happy sprouting 🙂
My best to all.
Lyle
LOVE the farmers markets, there’s always a great choice of stuff there! Have a great weekend too, my friend. 🙂
How exciting that some are sprouting! I think it’s amazing to provide food for the family from your own backyard. I have no experience with gardening, but I would really like to try something on a small scale. Living in an apartment makes it a bit difficult though.
Yeah, it’s pretty neat, E.M. You’ll have to try it someday. I think you’d be great at it. 🙂
Wow! That is going to be some garden, Laurie! I don’t have a garden. Our backyard is tiny and we actually tiled it to make a nice patio/outdoor area for us. I do love veggies though, minus tomatoes, although I did discover that I love roasted tomatoes last year. 🙂 Glad to hear the snow is gone! Have a great weekend!
Funny – Rick doesn’t like tomatoes either, but loves sun-dried tomatoes. What’s up with that? 🙂 Your yard sounds gorgeous, Shannon! I would love to do that here someday, just have a nice patio area. You have a great weekend too. 🙂
That’s a fantastic goal, Laurie! I’m praying that your garden yields a bounty that overwhelms you guys. 🙂
🙂 Thanks, DB40. Next time you’re up here, stop in and we’ll hook you up with an awesome garden salad. 🙂
I’m going for it this year. I’m starting a small garden and so far my plants are doing good. Wish me luck. 🙂
Yay, Brit!!! Keep me updated. I’m excited to hear how it goes. 🙂
We already have tomatoes, chili, ginger and bell pepper in our garden. My daughter really wanted to pick up tomatoes in our garden, even if it is not ripe yet. She said that she can’t help but to hold the fluffy tomatoes. By the way I also have different kind of flowers especially orchids.
Ah, the blessing of a warm climate! 🙂 “Fluffy tomatoes”, that’s funny! The orchids sound wonderful – we’ve got some awesome perennial gardens here too. Love them! Thanks for sharing, Clarisse. 🙂
I’m in a rental unit right now, so I’m away from the big land this year. I bought myself a couple of grow lights and started some perennial herbs and flowers in the house. There’s a little grove of shade trees near the house that the owner said I could dig up. I’m just going to incorporate that beauty in with the trees.
Great idea, Scott! That will turn out very nice. We’re going to do some potted herbs this year too. Cilantro, Basil, Sage, yum!
I love having fresh lettuce in my garden and continue to grow it during the winter using an AeroGarden in my kitchen – one for lettuce and one for herbs. Still not enough lettuce! Also focussed on an orchard. Had an apple tree and added a pear tree last year. Plum tree planned for this year. Usually grow strawberries but would also like raspberries and blackberries. Love my rhubarb patch and am thinking of planting asparagus with it. I truly love the perennial garden plants. It is such a surprise each year when they come up by themselves. Starting my carrots, beans, peas, more lavendar, spinach and tomatoes in pots soon.
Hi, Chance!! Haven’t heard of the AreoGarden – thanks for sharing that info! We have fruit too: 4 apple trees, a blueberry bush, black and red raspberries, and a pear tree. I’m hoping to do better this year with harvesting and preserving the apples, and making some fruit jellies and jams. You’ll have to keep us updated on your garden too – thanks, Chance!
Wow, that’s a lot of different types of veggies and fruit you are planting! We are planning on planting lettuce, kale, herbs, tomatoes, raspberries, zucchini squash, maybe butternut squash, and a few other things. We have also put some blueberry bushes in the ground so our hope is that they take off and do really well. We live in the perfect area for blueberries!
We are working on also getting some planters.We’ll plant the more delicate stuff (lettuce, herbs) in the planters to avoid bugs.
That’s our plan for herbs too. We never get much in the way of blueberries, mostly because the birds eat them, which is fine with us. Daisy, you’re planting quite an expanse of stuff too – can’t wait to hear how it turns out!
I’ve been thinking about gardening lately and have an urge to start my own garden so I can grow my own veggies. Problem is: I know nothing about gardening, have no place to garden and I don’t feel I have the time to properly tend to it. I don’t even have a sunny window. 🙁
Can I live vicariously through your garden? It sounds like you’ve got a great variety planted for this year! Grow little seedlings grow!
LOL, you sure can, Kate. 🙂 We knew nothing when we started too, but we are SLOWLY learning things. We simply count every improvement as a success. 🙂
I think it’s great what you are doing Laurie. We used to do a veggie garden years ago, but hubby would often neglect it so I told him why bother? I’m not sure if I could get into keeping it up either. I will discuss with him. It could be a good way to get our grocery budget down.
It really could help! We’ve always been rather neglectful of our garden (in fact, I’m sitting here, writing, when I should likely be out watering the seedlings. 🙂 ), but now, out of necessity more than anything, we are committed to making a serious run at it. 🙂
We have been talking about starting a garden this year.
I love new fresh veggies as much as anything!
Our problem is that there are deer that live around our neighborhood that eat EVERYTHING.
Yeah, we get that, Jefferson. Rick’s going to put a simple electric fence up this year to keep deer and rabbits away from our garden. Last year, the rabbits ate our lettuce before we could even grow it big enough to harvest.
I am dying to start a garden, so I am asking my landlord if I can use the backyard space this year. I have no idea where to start though, so if you have ideas, please share!
Good for you guys, Michelle!! In our menu, go under “learn more” and then under Homesteading and you’ll find a post entitled “Gardening for Beginners”. That would be a great place to start! Keep us updated, I’m excited to hear how it goes!
I’ve just got started for the year. I’ve got tomatoes and peppers growing nicely, with all sorts of other veggies just planted. My onions are just starting to show their heads and the purple sprouting broccoli (a real fav!) is just starting to poke it’s head up through the soil. Let’s hope the good weather is here to stay!
Wow, you’re really coming along already, Richard! We are a good 4-6 weeks away from planting outside, but we’ll see how it goes. :-). Best of luck to you with your garden.
That looks great and I am sure that you will have no problems turning the garden into the one that will feed you for the whole year. Not only that it’s a lot cheaper, but knowing that you’re eating from your own garden and you are SURE the veggies have no pesticides and fertilizer and other bad stuff, it certainly makes it all taste better! Good luck with the garden and happy to hear that the snow is finally gone.
Oh, C, that is SO important to us. The chemicals they use on most commercial fruits and veggies are horrible, and there really is a huge taste difference in stuff you grow yourself. Thanks for the well wishes – we appreciate it!
Laurie, this year I am committed to getting that raised bed garden built and some vegetables grown! Looks like you are off to a good start. Hopefully it warms up here and stays warm so that we can do more outdoor stuff like gardening and landscaping. Seems like this Winter doesn’t want to go away.
Good for you, DC! Yeah, you’re right about winter, especially today! 🙂
I hope we can get more of our garden going. I’ve been so busy with school, and my wife with the kids activities that we’ve neglected our garden as well 🙂
Yeah, it can be difficult to find the time, that’s for sure. Best of luck to you as you work on your garden for this year, Derek.
Yes we are! We are doubling the size of our garden because it was too small last year. Even though it’s only two of us, we easily can give away the extras! Can’t wait to see your garden that provides enough for six!
We’re renting a community plot and planting our own garden this year. I’m so excited.
Good for you, Emily! Can’t wait to get updates on that. 🙂