The Veggie Garden

Hey there!  Hope everyone is enjoying their day.  I thought I would share some photos of our backyard garden with you as that is where we are spending most of our time these days since it's SUMMER!  Yay!

Gardening is a huge passion of mine.  Our kids have even been bitten by the gardening bug.  Hubby and I have had a vegetable garden since we first married 20 years ago, no matter where we live.  

We kinda follow the square foot gardening plan in that we built 4' x 4' boxes for our vegetables.  That's about it.  I don't really plant something per square foot.  This works for us.  As you can see, we finally finished the privacy fence and oh how we love it.  We still have some landscaping to do in the back corner where our compost bin is.  All the veggies are coming along nicely, which is a far cry from last summer when everything completely burned up with the hotter than hades summer.

The heirloom tomatoes blooms are setting and I can't wait to eat them.  It feels like forever since we have enjoyed tomatoes right out of the garden.

We also planted lots of cherry and yellow pear tomatoes to throw in our salads and pasta.  Or add to the basil with fresh mozzarella. Yum!

 The zucchini.  I have to admit I have a love hate relationship with zucchini.  While I love to eat them, I can't seem to grow them very well, even though they are supposed to be fool proof.  Anyone else have this problem?  Mine shrivel up, turn yellow and die before they ever get big enough to harvest.  I read this is because of inadequate pollination.  So, I did try the hand pollinating method of taking the male and female flower and..........(ahem) nevermind.  Um, have you ever seen what the inside of male zucchini flowers looks like?  I have to admit, I may or may not have turned bright red while doing it.  It worked last year, but I don't get up early enough when the flowers are open in the morning to do that with each one.  So, I might be buying all our zucchini at our local farmers market.

The arugula is growing like weeds.  Love that stuff.

And we can't wait for these little flowers to turn into delicious cantaloupe, my boys' favorite.  I'm telling ya, you can't even compare the taste of a garden cantaloupe vs. a store bought.  

So sweet and juicy.

Plenty of mint.  I like to add sprigs to simple syrup and steep, then remove and toss with fresh fruit.  So good.

And all the other herbs are doing quite nicely.

As are the red geraniums.  There's nothing quite as cheerful as a bright red geranium.

We also have planted cucumbers, banana peppers and red bell peppers.  All of our plants I started indoors by seed during the winter under grow lights.  

So much cheaper, though kinda a lot of work, too.

 I just love summer vegetable gardening and highly recommend it, 

even if you have to grown your veggies in pots. 

Enjoy the rest of your day!