See Our Garden Grow

There is something completely magical about having a garden. It's been a few years since we've been able to have one (moving mid-summer puts a damper on that), so we have been anticipating planting one for a long time! In our great excitement, we went a little overboard this year. Our lame HOA laws say we aren't supposed to have a garden, so I was planning on doing some containers at our house, and then I signed up for a 5'x20' plot at our community garden just a few minutes away. Well, then I got to know the neighbors better and they said nobody follows or enforces that rule, so go ahead and garden away! The previous owner had a garden along the south side of our house, so it was already prepped and had nice soil, so we decided to go ahead and plant a "small" garden there too (it's about 3-4' x 25').

Even though we went a little crazy, it has been so fun! We planted a lot of things we've never tried before - carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, strawberries, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, blueberries, and watermelon. We also did our usual favorites - green beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers, and lots of herbs. I was skeptical about the success of our community garden at first because the weeds are quite determined over there and I don't get there everyday, but everything is growing! It's so fun. Every morning I get up and check on our garden at our house and do so several more times during the day. I'm like a kid on Christmas morning when we see visible growth overnight. Luckily the weather here seems to be ideal for a growing garden. It rains just often enough that we hardly have to water and the soil stays moist for quite awhile with all the humidity!

Here are a few pics from our community garden:

Planting day - not much to see!

On our way to check on it one evening:

And this is what happens if we go 6 days without weeding. Ahh!

 Beans and weeds. We have since taken back control of the garden. :)

 Pretty purple cabbage growing!

 Grow, beans, grow!

 Carrots on the left, potatoes in the center.

 Tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic.

 Cabbage and beans.

Here are some pics of us planting our garden at the house....

 The kids LOVE digging in the dirt. They were sad when we told them "No more digging!" when the seeds were in the ground.

Hahaha

From a few weeks ago:

 We probably got 20-30 blueberries this year, but hopefully we'll get a bunch next year!

A beautiful visitor:

And here are some pics I took today...

Onions: The larger ones we purchased, the smaller ones in the middle we planted from seed. I thinned the larger ones and transplanted them over at our community garden.

 I just planted these a week or so ago, so they are tiny. Dill, basil, and parsley.

 Thyme!

 And beautiful oregano. This guy was just a little plant and gets the award for most growth! I've snipped off quite a bit and he's still huge.

 Lettuce! I didn't think these guys were going to survive, but after a week of looking pitiful, they perked up and grew a ton! We've enjoyed quite a few leaves already. Yummy!

 Helpers! We put the netting over to protect from the birds (blueberries), rabbits, and deer. We also heard that marigolds and mint deter the deer, so we have marigolds along the front and some mint at the end. So far only a couple blueberries have been eaten, so it seems to be working.

 Strawberries! I read that you are supposed to pinch off the flowers the first year to encourage growth of the plant, so I have done that on all our plants but one. Jeremy was pretty sad that I kept "killing" our strawberries, so I left one plant to flower and so we can see if it makes a difference. We'll probably only get about 10 strawberries this year, but hopefully lots next year!

 Broccoli! Like the lettuce, this looked really sad at first, but is doing great now. I had low hopes since I got it and the lettuce in the ground later than I probably should have, but both are thriving so far!

 Mmmmm....

 Along the house are cucumbers that we planted from seeds, and then a row of arugula and then mixed leaf lettuce (also planted from seeds). As soon as I thinned the arugula and lettuce it exploded! Also closest to me taking the picture are some pepper plants.

Hopefully we'll have a bountiful harvest in a couple months!