One of the things I am surprisingly enjoying this year is gardening. I’m a little surprised because my early memories of gardening growing up are those of pulling endless weeds in my mom’s or grandma’s big gardens. But what I also remember is the wonderful goodness that we enjoyed from those gardens: eating peas right out of the pods, picking cucumbers for pickles, snapping beans, picking strawberries in my grandma’s garden, chopping rhubarb for rhubarb cake, digging for new potatoes, the surprise what the corn cobs would reveal. Magical.

Last year we installed our little garden. We turned a hidden corner of our backyard that had a minor drainage issue into a garden oasis. We installed six metal bottomless planting troughs along with garden rock and walking pavers. It was the perfect solution for this space.

Our initial year of crops was less than stellar though (call it growing pains). I might have eked out enough cucumbers to make a couple quarts of refrigerator pickles, some salted and creamed cucumber gravy and a few cherry tomatoes. Our herb garden was the most successful of it all. I was a little disappointed to say the least but was determined to see if I could have a better year two.

In a hurry for something to grow, I planted some tulip bulbs so I could experience some early spring growth. Just after April 15th, I planted watermelon, banana peppers, jalapeño peppers, mini sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and squash. I also planted one dill, parsley and strawberry plant.

I focused more this year on prepping the soil in garden tubs, buying starter plants instead of seeds, and making sure they got plenty of water during our early season drought. The rain barrel was a life saver for this!

All this preparing and attention paid off. My cucumbers were amazing, my cherry tomatoes are just starting to slow down, I had a several zuchinni and yellow squash and about seven watermelon (Addy’s chickens loved those)!

And what did I do with all of this goodness? Well, we ate fresh cucumbers, sun-dried tomatoes, made lots of refrigerator pickles and canned some pickles and relish. I’ll share my favorites in another post.

Slowly but surely the summer garden is coming to a close. My focus now is to weed and tidy up to get it ready to plant some seeds for some spinach, kale, decorative cabbage and some more flowers. I have also had a project on the back burner for this garden spot that I am hoping to get to as soon as the heat breaks (been in the high 90’s and humid).

Denise