Our Dinner Garden

So it's finally begun.  Last night I took a basket out to the back garden to cut enough for salads for the hubs and I.  I even snuck over to Karlie's garden and picked a few pea pods to throw in there.  By the weekend, I know I'll be planning meals around what is ripe. 

Satisfaction is setting in. 

See the okra coming up on the left?  See my big beautiful tomatos?  There's also cabbage, peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, acorn squash, cucumbers (they are trying to take over!), lettuce, salad mix, spinach, and green beans.  Yum, yum, yum. 

See the big flowers in the back?  Yep, that is my sunflower patch that stretches about 150 feet - mixed with okra of course.  Who needs a privacy fence?

This is Karlie's garden.  It stretches the length of our back porch, maybe 3ft deep by 10ft.  We've already done 3 rounds of radishes for her, and here you can kind of see her pea plants and carrots coming up.  Nope, we don't really get peas - she picks them too fast for them to actually grow peas in the pod.  Such a hardship when your child wants to go outside and pick her own healthy snack, isn't it?

Tomato patch on the side of the house.  I've only got about 6 big plants now, but there are 12 more that are struggling to catch up.  Last year from this little patch alone we had tomatos until the end of October.  My fingers are crossed that they keep going!

My pitiful attempt at an edible landscape.  It just doesn't get enough light here!!!  Actually, parsley, peppers, squash and cucumbers are doing great.  Too bad that is only half of what I put in there!  I think that I'm going to go ahead and start more lettuce here, and see how it does.  No use not trying, is there?

So, now that I've shared what I've been woking on, I'd like to share what I've learned this year.  First, never plant cabbage seeds directly in the ground (well, it doesn't work well here), start them in something first.  Second, and most importantly, keep and boil egg shells with water to make your own fertilizer.  It is just as good, if not better than MiracleGro.  I know the hubs and I have never had results like we do in the back garden before!!!