Our Little Garden
We are blessed to have one acre. We always wanted a lot more (or even a few more!), but we’re so thankful for at least one. Our whole married life (sixteen years) we’ve done some sort of gardening. From herbs in pots and tomatoes in containers on our townhouse patio, to huge gardens with lots of rows and ten acres around us…there has always been a garden.
My husband usually takes care of the vegetables, and the herbs are my domain. I love everything about herbs. They just make me happy! We always have chives (delicious on baked potatoes).
I love the flowers that accompany the sage (above) in the spring. And I always have to have mint. I have spearmint and peppermint that my mom gave me. It’s so easy to divide up and then start in another location. Mom dug up some of her abundance of plants and shared them with me.
I also have Echinacea, Bee Balm, and some lavender. And we have some elderberry bushes. My huge three-foot-tall rosemary bush that had been thriving for several years died this past winter. And I lost a few lavender plants.
In addition to the herbs, we also have a few fruit trees that we planted when we first moved here. We have a couple of cherry trees, a couple of peach trees, and I think a couple of apple. But so far we haven’t had any fruit from any of them. I think we would have had some this year, but we had a late frost that ruined the fruit.
We also love to forage for free food. The children found that we have a couple of gooseberry bushes (below) on our property, which were probably planted by the birds. We also enjoy the wild blackberry bushes that grow at the edge of our yard.
My husband built three raised beds shortly after we moved here, and then this year we added a fourth, which was built with some scrap lumber.
This spring I started some heirloom vegetables from seed. I planted Granny Cantrell, Amish Paste, Cour Di Bue, and Fox Cherry Tomatoes. And they actually lived! My little plants were getting too big to be inside, and my husband was anxious to begin the planting. He didn’t even harden them off first, he just stuck them in the ground. I was sure they wouldn’t survive, but they did, and now we’re enjoying lots of tomatoes from them!
I also planted a couple of different types of peppers, and they also survived. Unfortunately, the zinnias and herbs I planted didn’t make it. It was nice to know that I could start vegetables from seed, but I don’t know if I’ll do it again next spring. It took quite a bit of time. I think it would be a nice project for a teenage daughter to take over!
This year our garden was on the smaller side, but it has still blessed us with some good things, so I’ve been thankful for it!
What a lovely garden…and the beautiful children who occupy it 🙂
There's nothing like food you've picked fresh from your own garden.
Thank you, Sarah! I agree, homegrown food is wonderful!
Your little garden is … perfect. It looks like it is yielding quite a bit of the things your family enjoys. This year it seems I grew zucchini/yellow squash and green beans VERY well. They sort of took over! Would you consider posting about what and how you planted it? (How do you know how much to plant for a family of your size?) Do you plant enough to can or just enjoy it as it comes? Which herbs do you chose to plant and why? I'm still such a beginner gardener!
Thank you, Carol! I miss having zucchini and green beans. Since we started using the raised beds a few years ago, we haven't made a space for larger crops like that (although several years we did have a couple of zucchini plants that we just stuck in the ground and they produced quite a bit).
Lately my husband and I have been so busy that we just kind of planted things without doing a whole lot of planning. Since we moved to this house on one acre (and a very shady yard), we've just been planting enough to eat now and occasionally we've had enough to freeze. But mostly we enjoy lots of lettuce and greens in the spring, and then we have plenty of tomatoes and peppers in the summer. Our previous house was on 10 acres and we had a HUGE garden spot. So we grew a lot more, including pumpkins, melons, various squash, cucumbers, beans, and many other things. It was a lot of work (for my husband, especially, who did almost all of it), but it was fun to produce so much of our own food.
I plant any herb I come across if it's a good price! I love them all. But I planted my echinacea with the intent to dig up the bulb after a few years and make a tincture with it. This would be the year to do that (since it's been growing for about 3 years now), but I don't know if I'll have the heart to dig it up. I also always like to have chives, since they're easy to use. Rosemary is also easy, and I use it in cooking, too. I like having mint to make tea with.
My favorite gardening book of all time is "Joy of Gardening," by Dick Raymond. It has lots of photos and he tells how to plan how much to plant and how to plant it. If I could have just one gardening book, this would be it!
Nice garden! My yard is the size of postage stamp. Not much room for gardening BUT I do have laundry lines and hang clothes out quite a bit. We live in a "neighborhood" of old homes, not quite urban but not suburb either. Consolation prize is that I about a mile from awesome Lake Michigan beaches! My DH would love to garden more.
Thank you, Christy! That's nice that you have a laundry line. I don't have one of those here (I'm hoping someday!). And that's so neat that you are so close to the lake!
I hope you have a great weekend!