January garden

Here's proof that you can grow greens in the South during the winter.

Fall Garden 2012

Our fall garden is coming along.  All the summer veggies were pulled and Jason replanted  the raised garden bed with cilantro, spinach, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, mesculum, and more greens.  The pepper tree in the middle has gotten huge too.  We have been quite impressed with how much food a little raised garden bed will produce with the right mix of soil, sun and rain.  You should have seen how many gorgeous red tomatoes we got.  Even our neighbors' friends were commenting about it.  The best part of having the summer garden was enjoying Jason's homemade salsa numerous times this summer and Hannah's waiting patiently for the carrots to grow this fall.  

End of the season harvest

Over the weekend,  Jason pulled up the tomato plants from the garden.  They had reached the end of their life and were starting to turn brown.  This whole box of green tomatoes was what was left on the plant.  Two tomato plants provided all the tomatoes we could ever want to eat this summer.  It was great!  These  green ones made some fantastic fried green tomatoes for dinner with friends and I still have half the box left to eat.  

Joys of gardening

To my kids' delight, I made my mom's homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner this week.  They absolutely love her recipe!  I don't make it often enough for them.  The best part was being able to walk outside to the garden and pick the vegetables straight from the plant.  They are organic vegetables with no pestisides put on them.  They are absolutely gorgeous vegetables that we have watched grow all summer and they are so yummy.  I was such a joy to use fresh vegetables for my family and not worry about what chemicals were sprayed on them.  Now, that is the joy of gardening.

Raised garden bed

Year after year, Jason and I have longed to have a backyard garden. The problem is that the backyard is shaded by two huge maple trees. We certainly don't want to cut them down since they definitely cool down the house. The only other option was to build one on the side of the driveway. I really didn't want to do this thinking it would look ugly and be an eyesore to the neighborhood. We don't live in a neighborhood with a HOA that would tell us no, so we were just wrestling with ourselves. Thank the Lord, we're not in a HOA! Jason could possibly be told not to bring his work truck and trailer home on the weekends if we did. You see, he parks it in the driveway over the weekend not leaving it at the dealerships like he does on the weekdays. We never plan to live in a neighborhood with a HOA. Ask Jason about how he feels about a HOA and you'll get an earful!

For years, I fought at it and refused Jason thinking it would still be an eyesore. Then Pinterest came along and changed my thinking. I soon discovered you could build gorgeous looking raised garden beds that weren't eyesores at all.

I then shared all these gorgeous pictures with Jason and we both jumped in the deep end and agreed it was time. I supplied the inspiration picture and Jason built it.

He did a great job. We are going to grow peppers, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, herbs and more. I plan on incorporating some gardening "unit study" for the kids and get them involved too.

Here's the before planting picture and the after planting picture. Now with a little time, sun, and rain, we'll be raking in the pesticide, chemical free veggies.