How Does Your Garden Grow?

Our little vegetable garden.

Another angle

one little peach tree

The other little peach tree

All the left over sod we have to figure out how to get rid of.

Well, it's that time of year again--time to get the garden planted.  We had so much fun with our garden last year, that we decided to expand this year.  So Kris dug and dug up the sod, we hauled in 5 cubic yards of dirt and compost, and we set up fences, etc. to get ready to plant.  We had a great couple days last weekend while we did all the prep work, and then the rain descended.  It rained and rained and rained and we couldn't get anything planted.  Finally, the rain let up enough to plant our little plants and seeds while it lightly sprinkled.  And today we actually even have a few little radishes peeking their heads out.  In total we planted green beans, sweet peas, radishes, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, pumpkins, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, parsley, oregano, cilantro, peppers and a couple different kinds of tomatoes.

We also took a step that I have been threatening to do for a few years.  We planted two peach trees and some raspberry plants.  For so many years now I have been canning the peach raspberry jam Grandma Dorothy taught me how to make right after we got married.  And every year I pay a lot of money for the peaches and raspberries to make it.  I have always dreamed of being able to go to the back yard for my own harvest of peaches and raspberries to make the jam.  I know we are a couple years off actually having any substantial yield.  But that is what has kept me from taking the step in the first place.  Now we have done it and I look forward to what we will see from our work.  I just hope we don't move before I see the fruits of our labors (which might always be a possibility).

You will notice that we have a little black fence around it with an archway and then the oh-so-attractive chicken wire.  We think that at the beginning of the season the black fence, archway and mounds of dirt make our garden look like our own personal back yard graveyard.  And we think the chicken wire adds a nice touch. But it is necessary to keep out the rabbits and our dog Pepper who happens to like to eat peppers very much.  The garden is off limits to him.