Family Garden

In our family, the garden has traditionally been a project for us all to work on and enjoy...TOGETHER.  We work together and harvest plenty for all.

Here's a few shots of two generations of our family in the garden last summer:

Over the years, I have learned all kinds of scientific things about gardening...double digging, companion planting, square foot gardening, organic soil enrichment, encouraging beneficial insects, organic weed control, and so on.  But my roots run much deeper than that...and this is where it all started...my mom and dad's back yard.  Dragging baskets full veggies up through our yard from the family garden is one of my most treasured childhood memories.  Snapping fresh beans and plucking fresh strawberries from the vines will forever be one of my favorite things to do with my mom.


Growing up we always had a huge garden in my parents' back yard.  Back then, dad plowed the soil with his Gravely.  At some point (probably during our teenage years), we outgrew our interest in gardening temporarily.  Then a few years ago, my brother and I started double digging a little plot for our mom for mother's day...and every year since then, the garden has doubled in size.

This year our garden will be full of fruits and veggies for the whole family.  My brother and I spent hours double digging to expand the square footage and putting up new fence.  We both have great tans to show for it, too!  My mom and I redid all the retaining walls and weeded and worked the soil.  Next, I incorporated manure and compost into the existing soil and put down the weed cloth.  Last week at the farm store where my mom works, she and I picked out our plants and seeds.  We made sure to include the ingredients for favorite family recipes like zucchini bread, haluski and chicken soup.

 Here's the layout of what we've planted so far:

 

All in all we have planted:  corn, pumpkins, watermelons, raspberries, strawberries, onions, chives, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, cukes, cabbage, beans, sugar snap peas and sunflowers!

 Today, my mom and I planted most of the veggies in this area...you can see the strawberry patch is well established already.  If you look closely in the pictures from last year, you can see how this little patch of yummy berries has evolved.  In the photo above, you can also see how we built the garden on two levels to improve drainage..since it's at the foot of a small embankment there is lots of run-off to keep the thirsty plants happy.

Zucchini

 

Lots of room for the pea and bean seeds to grow... (above)

(Below) In the top, right corner I planted corn, pumpkin and watermelon seeds today.

 

 We have two sets of raspberry plants in the back, left corner.  We planted them about two weeks ago.  The four in the back are doing awesome and were dug up and given to us by the neighbor.  The two sickly looking raspberry plants in the front were ten bucks each at Lowes!

  Clockwise from the top right are the chives, carrot seed patch, cukes, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli and 2 rows of onions (along the back).

We gave everything a good watering today, and it's supposed to rain tomorrow...so everything should get nice and settled.  Stay tuned to see how our garden grows...

 How does your garden grow?

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