School's out for summer! I can hear all the kids cheering in the background. :) Here is our first harvest from the garden. We dug up half of the radishes last week and the rest this week. This is the largest radish either of us has ever seen. We had a little bit of a rocky start to our garden this year. It rained and rained and then it rained some more. Keith had some help from his nephew one afternoon and so he decided to start planting the garden back around April 23rd. Well, the next day, there was a frost warning. Aaargh. We had to cover as much as we could to save our newly planted seedlings. Some of the plants didn't make it, but most survived the crazy weather.
We love to start our plants from seed. The main reason is because it is so much easier on the pocketbook. Since one of the benefits of growing your own fruits and veggies is saving money, we felt like the most responsible way to do that was to buy seed and instead of plants. I invested in a variety of seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. So, in February, we started several varieties of peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and ground cherries. I haven't tasted ground cherries before, so I will have to let you know how we like them. They are closely related to tomatillos, but are sweet and can be made into jams and pies. I also started some asparagus plants that need a permanent bed. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that done soon.
We love to start our plants from seed. The main reason is because it is so much easier on the pocketbook. Since one of the benefits of growing your own fruits and veggies is saving money, we felt like the most responsible way to do that was to buy seed and instead of plants. I invested in a variety of seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. So, in February, we started several varieties of peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and ground cherries. I haven't tasted ground cherries before, so I will have to let you know how we like them. They are closely related to tomatillos, but are sweet and can be made into jams and pies. I also started some asparagus plants that need a permanent bed. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that done soon.
Here are some of the tomatoes we planted. I think we ended up with about 50 tomato plants. I didn't count the pepper plants, but there are probably around 40 plants. I ran out of space to put all the plants I started!!!
I CANNOT wait until I finally get my first tomato sandwich of the summer. YUM!
I CANNOT wait until I finally get my first tomato sandwich of the summer. YUM!
AND...here is the squash. I think I counted 17 squash plants. We're going to have squash coming out of our ears!!! What we don't eat fresh or freeze, I hope to sell at the farmer's market. I'm still hoping to be hired in my first teaching job and have my own classroom this fall, but I haven't heard anything yet. Since I'm not working over the summer, we're hoping to supplement my income by selling some of our produce.