How does your garden grow?

So far this year we have so many delicious fruits and veggies off to a great start. We are already through the first batch of jam from the strawberries, and the blueberries are ripening every day. I just picked the first batch this afternoon!

 The plum tree is loaded with tiny green plums, and the cherry, pear, peach and fig trees, although still small, young trees, are filling in with fresh green leaves and, in the case of the apple tree, flowers.  The garden beds are also loaded with seedlings and sprouts.

It is worth mentioning that we grow most of our own produce in the summer for several reasons, one of which is that we have control over the growing practices.  What that means for us both in terms of health as well as environmentally is that we do not use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides, at all.   We use natural and non chemical forms of pest control when necessary and we fertilize and enrich the soil only with our own compost.  We have a traditional compost pile outside, and we also have a worm composter.  So far, we have had great success, and peace of mind, with these methods, and don't really find them to be difficult at all.

The garden peas are almost finished for the season already, and the peas we had from them were delicious.  We will plant another batch late in the summer for fall harvest. The asparagus is growing like wildfire, and the long list of plants that will be ready to harvest over the next few months includes yellow squash, butternut squash, watermelon, pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, green beans, jalapenos, bell peppers, red beans, black beans, radishes, turnips, parsnips, carrots, cucumbers (both slicing and pickling varieties), broccoli, cabbage, spinach, romaine, potatoes, beets and lufas, which we grow because I like to make exfoliating soap with them!

We have switched over most of our garden to raised beds, and are using a square foot gardening method.  It has allowed us to fit a lot more in the space, and so far everything is growing extremely well.  The strawberries have grown enough to now take up 2 beds, along the same side of the house as the 3 largest blueberry bushes.  In this picture, you can see one of the covers that Mark built for the raised beds to keep the neighbor's cats out! Further down are some of the blueberry bushes.  If you look closely off to the right, you can see sweet Billie Dog keeping an eye on things for us!











This is one of the beds of corn, about 2 weeks ago.  The plants are about twice that size now.  These beds are 4 feet by 4 feet, and as you can see they are divided up into single square foot sections with simple string.  Each square foot contains 4 corn plants, and there are 16 square feet in the bed.  That means that we have 64 corn plants in each of these beds, and there are 2 beds of corn.  128 corn plants with at least one ear on each plant!  I can't wait!










This is another  4 foot by 4 foot bed, also divided into individual square foot sections.  This one has 6 cabbage plants, 6 broccoli plants and 4 squares of green beans, each of which holds 9 bean plants for a total of 36 pole bean plants.  Shortly after I took this picture, Mark built a trellis for the beans to climb.  Last year we grew a bush variety, and while they produced well, since the pole beans can grow vertically more than bush beans do, this layout has allowed us to put more plants in less space.  If I'm lucky, I'll have enough beans this year to stock the pantry with tangy Dilly Beans (look for that recipe when the harvest starts to ripen!) and still put my green bean frencher to good use (I prefer fresh green beans french cut!)







I didn't get any good pictures yet of the root vegetable beds, but Mark built them 12 inches deep, which is twice the depth of the rest of the raised beds.  We haven't had great luck with carrots in the past because of our soil, but I'm hoping to have plenty of well formed ones this year.  So far they are growing like crazy, and since all 6 of us love them, I can't wait to have fresh organic ones fill the fridge without breaking the bank!  I suppose I could go on and on about why I am excited about each and every fruit and veggie that is growing, and that satisfaction and excitement grows every time I can go out in the yard to literally pick something for dinner (or breakfast or lunch).  If you haven't had a garden before, it may be worth giving it a try this year, I promise you won't be sorry!  The next thing you know, you will be learning how to can fresh produce to preserve the harvest because you won't be able to eat it fast enough.

If you are interested in more information about how we garden, or the square foot gardening method in general, please leave a comment letting me know!