First Garden

Gardening

 We first moved into our house a year and a half ago, the first thing I told my husband I wanted was a garden. We have been married 6 yrs and had always been in apartments. I tried to grow a couple of things on the back porch but everything DIED (I have never been one to keep plants alive). This was my time to redeem myself. And bring justice to all the plants that I had killed. Growing up we always had a garden and many fruit trees. My mother was an amazing women. She cooked, cleaned, took care of 6 kids and still had time for gardening. Everything we ate was hand prepared by her. But like most children I spent most of my time eating out of the garden instead of watching how it was made. This was my time shine. Because Texas soil is crummy we built a garden box. As soon it was built I started vigorously planting. Any package of seeds I saw went in. I couldn't wait to see if anything would grow. Within a couple of week the sprouts began to come up, it was the best feeling in the world. I planted something and it actually grew!  I did have some crowding issues but all in all we had a pretty good crop. The best part of all was that my children where able to see where REAL food comes from. They used there tiny hand to plant something that grew into something they ate. If you have ever had trouble getting your kids to eat veggies plant a garden. The boys would be playing in the backyard get hungry and start eat handfuls of peas.  Most of the veggies never got to fully mature because of these little hand, but it didn't matter they were happy.

This month will be my third crop. I have learned by default what works and what's not worth it. Here is my list:
Not Worth it (Didn't grow and/or took up too much space.)
Carrots
Potatoes
Cucumbers
Cantaloupe

Worth it
Any type of lettuce (my fav Butterhead, spinach and spring mix)
Herbs (basil, parsley,chives)
Peas
Beans
Tomatoes

Each crop I am planting something new to see how it does. This crop it's pickling cucumbers, dill. I'll let you know the results.


For those of you that have not heard of Bountiful Baskets you are missing out! It is a fruit and veggie co-op. You pay $15 at the beginning of the week and pick up a variety of fruit and veggies at the end of the week.  Each week is a different variety. So if you are a picking eater and don't like to try new thing, this is not the thing for you. For myself I am a daredevil and like to try new thing. This is what we got  last week: