How Does Your Garden Grow?
This year we are trying out gardening. It’s been the perfect age to get the boys involved. They’ve loved the opportunity to help Daddy build, plant seeds, get dirty, and watch the veggies begin to grow. So far we’ve planted peas in the raised bed and have tomatoes and peppers growing inside. We’ll be planting green beans and cucumbers in the next week or two.
Hopefully their excitement about GROWING the veggies transfers to EATING the veggies! =)
I’m excited to have fresh produce right outside our door. How’s that for knowing where your food comes from?
If this goes well, we’ll hopefully expand and grown more fresh options next spring!
What’s your favorite garden fresh produce?
Have you had any success with gardening?
Tips to share?
Next year if you make your garden bigger, I highly suggest planing a bunch of corn. You can have fresh corn on the cob and then make freezer corn (yummy-o).
Just a funny story about gardening-
when I still lived in my apt a few years ago, I planted container tomatoes. I started with seeds and didn't think they were ever going to get big enough to have tomatoes! I ended up with tomatoes in October, after everyone else's were done. It was funny, but they were still delicious, even in the fall! 🙂 Good luck with your growing!!
Well I have been gardening for years. We have all the usual stuff and I can green beans and tomatoes every year. Last year we canned 70 qts of beans and about 80 qts of tomatoes. Tired cucumbers last year and that didn't work so we are attempting again this year. You will get so much joy from gardening and the boys will enjoy it so much. We usually put our garden in around Mother's Day and enjoy it through Sept/Oct. Have you ever heard of Straw Bale Gardening? I just found out about that and it looks interesting but lots of work to prepare the Straw Bales. Have a great day. Sherri (HoundDogMom)
Hmmm…this make me want to try it with my boys. But I have a major BROWN thumb, so everything would probably just die. Looks like so much fun tho!!
haha theres his hands down the pants again!!
We, mainly I, decided to plant a garden last year when I was about 7 months pregnant! Not the best of timing and we didn't research very much so it didn't go as well as hoped for but we learned a lot and are planting one again this year. In the beginning we had a TON of luck with cucumbers, they were the first to produce and grew the best. They were the best tasting cucumbers I had ever had….until…they got a fungus, which also wiped out our pumpkins! Like I said this year we learned and will take the appropriate precautions but good luck!! Both years now my son has LOVED helping with the garden and watering the plants, he can't wait until we get some produce (which he will hopefully eat as well).
Good for you! I hope your garden grows and grows. We love to garden and I do lots of canning and freezing each year I posted quite a bit about our garden last year on my blog and will again this year. Our garden has been planted (except the peppers) and is starting to look good.
You will love it! And so will your boys. We've been gardening for a few years now, and I can as much as I can so we have our garden produce available at our fingertips year round.
This year we've paired it down a bit because of all the chaos (big vacation, home addition, and babe #4 due in July)–but we're still planting a bit. I'm behind so no pics. 🙁 Yet.
Oh, and just to throw this out there, my children showed a HUGE increase in their interest in veggies when we started gardening, and they began helping me. Love it!
Good luck!! My husband has quite the green thumb and we've had a garden every year we've been in our house (this is our 9th summer here). We also have raised beds (I think we have over a dozen now and are putting in a few more again this summer!) We've had everything from the usual tomatoes, corn, zucchini, beans, radishes, and lettuce to eggplant, garlic, leeks, pumpkins, and kohlrabi. I think he tries something new every year. One of our favorite things is to make big batches of fresh salsa and spaghetti sauce with it all! I also love zucchini bread! yum!!
our older two are also very interested in helping daddy in the garden. The Easter Bunny brought them watering cans this year so they could help!
Wonderful! We've gardened at various "levels" depending on my pregnancy status over the last few years 🙂 This year, even though we have a baby due in June, we're doing quite a bit because feeding a family of five their veggies has become a challenge, and the boys LOVE to eat straight out of our garden (the peas usually don't make it to the house!) I second someone else's idea above to do corn if you can, but it needs to be planted in more like "clumps" than rows for best germination. Things I've found are that peas and lettuce are easy to grow, but you need to do them early as they can't tolerate heat. You can do them again in the fall as it starts to cool down, though. Canning your extra produce is a lot of work, but over the winter seems well worth it. This year we have a little more space at our new location so we're composting in a barrel – excited about that b/c it's "green", supposedly a natural pest deterrant, and decreases our trash tremendously! We also have raspberry bushes that went nuts last year with NO effort, so we're adding more this year.
Do you still have those quad bunnies hanging around? They may be your biggest challenge… there are some natural deterrants at your garden store (bonemeal is one, but not cheap) that you can sprinkle around, but the natural options generally have to be reapplied after it rains. We have TONS of rabbits here, and have peas about 8-10 inches tall and climbing already – they haven't been bothered YET….
Good luck!
This is our second summer garden, and my three boys love it! It's an excuse to dig in the dirt and pull out their watering cans. Then when the tomatoes are ripe, I can't keep their little hands away!
Love you blog and photos. I've added you to my blogroll so I can come back and visit!