This year, Caleb and I really wanted to start a garden. There was a community garden plot that had been used in previous years (although grass had been sown over it since) and so we thought we'd till it up and start again. We tried to use my dad's (a hand-me-down from my grandpa) but we first had a hard time getting it started and then it was so small (and we were trying to till a garden for more than just us to use) that Caleb decided we should just use our new maintenance guy's. Well, his wouldn't get started, either, so we rented one from our local hardware store. Afterwards, Caleb and I spent hours digging out the clumps of grass and trying to make the soil friendly for a garden.
We planted seeds for corn, beans, carrots, onions, cucumbers, early summer lettuce, and zinnias. We also planted a few little strawberry plants, some raspberry transplants from my parents, a little blackberry plant, and some rhubarb transplants from my grandma. Yes, we were ambitious, but with that many, something has to grow, right?
Well, sort of. We had some early summer lettuce - lots of it actually and really good, too! Except that camp had already started, and we always ate with the camp, so we never used our lettuce. Bummer.
Here's where we planted onions. This is what it looked like the whole summer! (Except without the weeds.)
Our beans and cucumbers came up, but then were eaten by the time they were about 4 inches tall. Then came more weeds. (For the record, I did weed mostly diligently for the whole summer.)
Our raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries couldn't take the heat of this summer, and our rhubarb got mowed and then weed-whacked! (I know, right!) Our corn started looking okay, but then a huge storm came and knocked out half of it and kind of killed the rest. We got some neat pictures, though!
Other than lettuce and the zinnias (pictures for another day), our carrots were the only other things that actually produced a crop.
Aren't they beautiful? Yes, except few of them were larger than this:
From our entire garden, we got 1.3 pounds of carrot sticks. Oh boy. Better luck next year!
Love and Dirt,
Leah Joy
We have been trying valiantly to grow vegetables in our yard as well. I am so tired of the tomato worms and small rodents eating our food! We finally were able to harvest a few yummy tomatoes, and they were fabulous!!
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