Her Garden Grows

Due to the prolific amount of baby-related posts, you may think that I’ve completely forgotten how to think, say, or do anything that doesn’t have to do with my kid. And, I mostly have. But, thanks to my dear husband, we’re back into the swing of gardening. Our garden has been planted for about a month, but it’s taken me this long to finally snap some pics and get a post together. Forgive the quality of these photos, all I had with me was hubby’s iPhone.

Due to the extremely rainy and cold spring (if you can even call it spring), we were pretty late getting things planted. Most years things are quite a bit ahead of where they are now and we’re usually already eating lettuce. But, such is the way with gardening. Things will catch up. I’m already astounded at how quickly everything’s growing.

So, here you have it. Our 2011 garden. The garden itself is no bigger than it was last year, but we ended up planting the zucchini, squash and cucumber - crawling plants that take a ton of room – in a different area to leave more space the main garden.

That sexy, shirtless garden boy that you can just barely see in the corner? He comes with the garden.

First up we’ve got potted herbs (oregano, chives and basil), radish, beets, onions, lettuce, carrots, turnips, leeks, and strawberries. And holy – talk about strawberries. So far, we’ve picked upwards of 25 qts of berries. We’ve been eating them like crazy, C and I made a ton of jam, I’ve made/eaten/frozen strawberry pies, and also frozen a bunch of bags of whole berries. I’m actually kind of getting sick of them. Gasp.

Below we have …. Top left: potatoes. Bottom left: green beans. Center/top right: tomatoes (many varieties). Middle right: red and green pepper. Bottom right: okra. We were given a bunch of starter tomato plants and weren’t sure of all the labels so also bought a few plants to ensure we had what we’ll need for salsa and canning. And, um, we now have like 30 tomato plants. So, locals, prepare yourself for tomato-palooza 2011 when they get ripe. I’ll be forcing them down your throats. Heck, maybe even the non locals should get prepared. Tomatoes would hold up well in the mail, wouldn’t they?

We planted enough for 70-80 lbs of potatoes, so get ready for those, too. This is the first year we’ve planted okra from seeds because I couldn’t find any starter plants so my fingers are crossed. Me needs fried okra all summer long!

Like I said, we planted our crawlers in a different area. The first row of orchard by the garden (um, hello, cherry farm!) has had a number of trees taken out, so there are a few strips of open ground. This year Evan turned up some of that area to do some more planting. Two rows of sweet corn, acorn, butternut, buttercup and spaghetti squash, zucchini, and cucumber. These plants are doing amazingly well so far.

And of course, I can’t leave my first garden post of the year without showcasing the cherries. Of course, they aren’t in the garden, and they don’t even belong to us, but we love them nonetheless. They aren’t quite ripe but if you look closely you may find a couple on a tree that are ready. Last night, I enjoyed my first two the season.

As always, I’m looking forward to a season chalk full of fresh produce, baking, canning and preserving. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to ship Evalyn off and devote the entire month of August to taking care of all of this.

Bring on the salsa!