Our Vegetable Garden

Our Vegetable Garden and shed that took all of 2 weeks to set up after more than 5 years of contemplation. A lot of hard work but totally worth the effort.

Good food starts with good ingredients and one way to get those ingredients is to plant them yourself. With that in mind, we have always wanted to have Our very own Vegetable Garden. We had a false start when we first moved to this house where we tried to resuscitate an old vegetable plot in the other corner of the yard. Unfortunately, that spot has become too shady for a successful vegetable garden. We had to give it up and plant hostas instead. I don’t know about you but hostas do not make good salads except for the deer and rabbits.

This corner of the yard was just as shady even though we chopped down one rotten tree at the far corner. Although we managed to clean up our side of the yard about 4 years ago as seen in this post, we still could not do very much about the shade. The neighbor finally took down the other tree on his side about 2 years ago. This opened up the space enough for the midday sun to shine through.

Now is our chance to make good Our Vegetable Garden dream before procrastination, old age, and senility sets it…haha!

Ro-Ri San has always wanted a garden shed and so we decided to put the two together. For the shed we chose the Rubbermaid 7ft x 7ft Big Max Storage Shed which is the perfect fit for the space. So glad the project is finally completed…YAY! It took us about 2 weeks in all to get it to this point. We have put in a few more little details to make the garden more inviting. Now, it’s time to sit back, relax, and watch the vegetables grow.

I will update this post throughout summer with new pictures of those little cabbages, brussels sprouts, broccoli, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, sweet peppers, okra, carrots, onions, garlic, and potatoes in the barrel. Please check back from time to time to see their growth. Hopefully I’ll have a bountiful harvest.

Update June 9, 2015

One week after we set up the vinyl fence, we had a rabbit attack. Those not-so-cute rabbits bit through the fence and helped themselves to our salad bar. Fortunately, we detected their incursion early and promptly set up a more robust line of defense. We were also “rained” on by those silver maple seeds. It’s wild, baby, it’s wild out here!

Those pesky rabbits not only bit the vinyl fence but also squeezed through the wooden fence in the back. We had to fortify that fence as well with whatever kind of fencing material we had on hand. I guess when there is rabbit will power there is a way to get to that juicy salad bar. However, we humans are also a pretty tenacious bunch.

Here are a couple of mugshots of the culprit that squeezed through the wooden fence. It’s a baby rabbit! Cute? Maybe not!

Speaking of being “rained” on by seeds from the ash, silver maples, paper birch, and now cottonwood trees, we have baby trees (which we never planted) a.k.a. weeds, for sale.

Thankfully, the insanity is coming to and end, or has it? The weather has gotten warmer, the mosquitoes are out in full force, and the vegetables are growing.

We can almost see those sugar snap peas reaching out to hold on to the supports.

The brussels sprouts are strong and healthy.

The cabbages are doing just as well.

Even the purple potatoes have sprung forth. Soon they will need to be hilled.

It was a joy to taste the first fruits of our labor. I have a breakfast skillet recipe using some of these green/spring onions coming up real soon for you. Stay tuned and check back soon for more updates.

Update July 7, 2015 – Here is the link to the Sausage, Potato, and Egg Skillet as mentioned. Do check it out.

Update July 7, 2015

Almost two months have gone past since we first planted those cabbages, brussels sprouts, broccoli, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, sweet peppers, okra, carrots, onions, garlic, and potatoes. They needed a lot of TLC (tender loving care) but we are delighted that most of them have responded in kind.

Many of you who follow us on Facebook know that we were away on vacation last week. The best thing we did for these “babies” was to set up a sprinkler to keep them hydrated and happy twice a day.

Upon our return home on the 4th of July, the sugar snap peas were ready to be harvested. They have certainly grown and we were rewarded with our first crop of organic, home grown, sugar snap peas. They were amazingly sweet and crunchy. Recipe for Sugar Snap Peas and Shrimps Stir Fry will be posted soon.

The tomatoes started out slowly but had a growth spurt when the temperature rose. They are now as tall as the sugar snap peas and are bearing fruits. We piled more dirt onto the purple potato plants (bottom right corner) and they have grown quite huge. We need to fill the entire barrel up to the brim with even more dirt. Hopefully, we will have some good size purple potatoes to make these wonderful Baked Potato Chips.

We sowed some carrots using “old” seeds. They never came up and so we planted some yellow squashes, zucchinis, and eggplants in their place. So excited to see a yellow squash blossom appearing. Next year we need to grow more squashes so that we can harvest the edible blossoms.

Broccoli crowns are beginning to appear but the brussel sprouts have yet to form. Time to feed them or maybe they just need more water. We are also waiting patiently for the cabbages to make their heads. It can take up to 70 days for that to happen.

Sadly, the okra and peppers are still quite small. The relatively cooler spring and summer temperatures this year may have something to do with it. Whatever the case, it is unlikely they will make another appearance in this vegetable garden next year.

Be sure to stay tuned for even more updates and recipes…..

Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day! 😎