I'm an Army Wife and mother of two wonderful boys. I love crafting, cooking, working out, being outdoors and doing anything with my 3 guys. Loving life!
I am sad today this is not a happy post. We have not been as luck as last year with the garden. It has been a combination of poor soil, insects, heat and now rain (hurricanes)! We are pretty bummed about the results of the garden- it seems like every time we are getting ready to harvest something it either gets eaten by stink bugs or it rains for weeks and rots or explodes- have you ever seen a tomato explode?!?! EWW!
We went on vacation the end of July and when we came back the Community Center Garden was a sad sight! Our entire garden was infested with stink bugs and most of the squash, zucchini and cucumbers plants had been eaten. The hubby decided it would be best to pull them all up.
The backyard garden was a little rough as well but without the infestation- a little more on the dry side. THEN hurricane Irene passed over and we find this....
So this year we are starting our second year of Square foot/raised bed gardening. We've decided to expand! One bed at our house and one in the Community Garden. We started the one in our backyard on time but didn't get to start the Community Garden right away due to rain and the fact that they were still building the plots.
This is the garden in our backyard May 16
We used this plot last year and it's still in great condition! We're using out knowledge of what did better in the sun or shade and changing the line up! Hopefully we've made the right decision.
Backyard Garden June 4
Only a few weeks later and the garden is already showing progress!
Backyard Garden 6/16
We decided that we had some extra room and wanted some herbs right away. I have never had luck with cilantro so I figured I would get some thats already started. I've also learned through some research that as soon as your cilantro and basil start to have flowers they wont produce any more leaves and it's best to throw some seeds in the ground every couple of weeks!
Backyard Garden 6/28
We have Squash, Zucchini, Thai Basil, Rosemary, Sweet Basil, Cilantro, Plum Tomatoes, Carrots, and Cucumbers!
Backyard Garden 7/11
Only about two months in and it's overgrown!! I hope we didn't crowd it too much!! We were a little worried when all of the flowers kept falling of the squash plants. We actually found that it's very common if there are too many males they just fall off!! Also once they've pollinated the females they'll fall of as well because you'll only get fruit from the females! Maybe we'll get brave and try one of the many squash blossom recipes on the internet!
Our first harvest from our backyard garden!!
This is our first pick from our garden and it sure looks yummy! Just two months in and we've already gotten some yummy veggies!!
Community Center Garden
Our garden did SO well last year we decided to add another! They're kind of expensive to start so when we heard out community was starting a Community Garden where we could pay a refundable deposit for a small, medium or large plot we were super excited!! (Ok maybe just me) :) The hubby and oldest son started the garden and found the dirt filled with glass and just pretty crappy dirt. After a week the garden wasn't looking too good and it wasn't allowing the water to drain.
Community Center Garden June 4
So we added removed half of the dirt and some organic garden soil and some of our compost. Surprisingly all of the plants transplanted well!
Community Center Garden 6/16
Community Center Garden 6/16
Community Center Garden 7/4
Just a few weeks in and it's looking great!
Austen and Neil (courtesy of the Capital Flyer)
My husband and oldest son were even pictured in the base paper!
My big helpers!
Of course I have the best helpers ever! I'm surprised they're even dry in this picture because I think they really only come to play in the hose!
Unfortunately our first harvest from the community garden has already been enjoyed by the rabbits! So sad! They even ate all the leaves down to the stems! This made us decide to put up a fence whether or not it's "allowed"!
I hope you enjoyed visiting our garden! If you have a garden going be sure to link your blog below! I can't wait to see what your growing!
Well our garden is doing GREAT!! The squash, zucchini and cucumber that is. So far we have gotten 3 zucchini, 2 yellow squash and 2 cucumbers! Today we used two yellow squash, 1 zucchini and a cucumber in our dinner.
I sliced the zucchini and squash pretty thick, put them in a large ziploc with a thickly sliced sweet onion and poured in some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and a couple table spoons of sugar. Let them marinate in the fridge for a few ours then grill til tender! This is by far one of our favorite side dishes- we make it quite often in the summer!
I also sliced up a cucumber from the garden, with the other half of the sweet onion, and a tomato from the farmers market. I marinated those in some apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, basil from the garden and a couple tablespoons of sugar. YUM!
Also pictured were some AMAZING ribs and Grilled Garlic bread- and you thought garlic bread couldn't get any better!!.
Happy grilling!
We've gotten our first Cucumber!! It was HUGE as you can see it was the same size as Austen's head!
He was very excited to pick it. We used half in a pasta salad and the other half I chopped up to put into other salads. It was GOOD! We've got a few more tiny ones on their way. We also have about 3 yellow squash and 2 zucchini's growing every day. I wish our Tomatoes would grow but they're a little hot I think. The compost and rain has definitely helped the plants recover from the bug spray incident!
We've gotten our first second product of our Square Foot Garden!! A HUGE Zucchini. Now we had a little tiny one arrive first and I was so paranoid that something would eat it that I picked it! He was only about 3 inches long. Now this Ginormous Zucchini has not been eaten yet but after we picked him I decided to "Google" when to harvest zucchini (should have done this first). Your not supposed to let them get too large because they aren't very tasty so we will see! My big boy was sure excited to see it though!
Next up will be a cucumber it's about 4 inches long and I think I will pick him within the next few days!
My garden is doing GREAT!! Well that was until I decided to spray some Organic Plant Based bug spray on it!! The leaves started to shrivel up like they were burning! My husband started to water it so that the process would stop but the damage was already done! It didn't kill the plants but some of the leaves are damaged. I was so upset!
On a happier note we have 2 zucchini's almost ready to be picked!! This is my most successful gardening attempt so far! The tomatoes will hopefully start producing soon, and I just saw a tiny cucumber yesterday also!! My herbs on the other hand are growing quite slow, I think they may be getting too much sun. I'm going to have to experiment and see if I can give them a little shade.
This is my FIRST attempt at Square Foot Gardening! I have tried growing a vegetable garden back in Tennessee but the clay was so dense even worked with peat, soil and compost many vegetables did not grow. So I am hoping that this will be a much more productive way to produce vegetables! We started off making a box 4' x 6' . I taped off 1' x 1' squares. I started my vegetables in those little Jiffy planters (I didn't get a pic of them). Once they sprouted I trimmed them back and left the strongest sprouts standing. I then placed them in the squares and labeled them. I have one square left, I'm not sure what I'm going to put in there yet. so far I have Tomatoes (one of the few things that produced in TN), zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, jalapeno, leeks, spinach, salad mixed greens, basil, tarragon, dill, cilantro, chives and oregano. I did mostly herbs because i know they do well, I use them often and I'm nervous about the other veggies. I was going to attempt Asparagus but i heard it grows 12 feet and it's not good for beginner gardeners to attempt, so maybe next year. I also hope to get a few more blueberry bushes next year, we really enjoyed the ones we had in TN.
Once I got the veggies in the ground I surrounded it with posts and the fabric chicken wire fence. I'm hoping it will keep the squirrels and these little guys away (I think they're living under our shed! I'm also going to plant some more herbs or flowers when I make these planters. I think I may put mint in them because it spreads like a weed and I don't want it to take over my ENTIRE garden :).
Link up your Square Foot Garden and let me know what's growing in your Garden!
