Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 13. Vegetable garden!

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This morning I spent an hour weeding our vegetable garden (well, I made a dent in the amount of weeds that are waiting to be brutally killed by me...). But I thought I'll give you a little peak.

It's our third year to have a vegetable garden and I'm really enjoying it. We have a small strip of our back yard that we use for it, so we don't plant enough for canning but more for enjoying fresh produce through most of summer and fall.

This year, for example, we planted ten kinds of tomatoes - 1 plant each:

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I LOVE tomatoes, can eat them straight off the bush! We wanted to have a colorful collection this year, and I'm happy to say that all of them are doing great, and flowering right now, and at least half have tiny tomatoes coming:

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The climate where we live is mostly sunny and somewhat dry so tomatoes and also zucchinis are thriving:

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For some reason, yellow squash had never done as good, so this year I decided to just stick to zucchinis. We already have a couple coming, so, hopefully, in about two weeks we'll have some of our own.

We don't have much of our own produce yet but the kids definitely enjoy fresh-grown peas:

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Also the radishes are almost ready to be picked (maybe, another week or so):

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We also have green beans, three kinds of cucumbers, spinach, kale, two peppers and broccoli. And herbs- rosemary, parsley, dill, oregano and two kinds of basil. Oh, and also onions that I started in a cup from those white bottoms of the onions you buy in the store. They are doing great right now:

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As you can see, I still have plenty to weed:) Unfortunately, we don't have any space for fruit trees or berry bushes (well, we actually have 1 tiny blueberry bush) but we got some strawberries this year:

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And what makes me really happy is this:

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We share this apple tree with our neighbors, and it has A TON of apples coming this year. I'm so excited for all the applesauce I'm going to can :)

I really enjoy having our tiny vegetable garden. Next year I'm hoping to add a small green house to it too. My sister just got one this spring, and her cucumbers and peppers seem to be doing much better than mine, even though mine are doing pretty well too.

And this is what made me happy today. How about you? :)

21 comments:

  1. Love your garden!

    Day 12: Planting lots and lots of flowers that my husband got me for my birthday

    Day 13: Having a dinner out with my husband

    Nan

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    1. That's wonderful! I haven't planted any flowers this year, so my flower beds look pretty sad...Oh well, there is always next year :)

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  2. It made me happy today to have lunch with a friend I had not seen in a while.
    Your garden looks like it is doing great! We live where there is a homeowners association so we can't have an actual garden but we dug up one of our flower beds and use that as a small garden with just a tomato, pepper & zucchini plant. I love fresh veggies!
    Rhonda

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    Replies
    1. Oh, we used to live in a condo before where we couldn't do any gardening. I used to grow some herbs on the windowsill but that was just about it! It's nice that you can turn one of your flower beds into a tiny garden :)

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  3. You have an amazing veg patch and a good selection of veggies growing. well done. Puts mine to shame. 3 tomatoes five small pea plants, 5 purple mange tout, some lettuce.
    Carol

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    1. What are purple mange touts? :) I never got to plant lettuce this year. But the time I finally got to our garden, it was already too hot.

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  4. Your garden is so ahead of ours; however our radished peaked up after 5 days of being sowed. I have not even made it into my flower beds yet barely this year. xx

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    1. You had a long and nasty spring there!! I'm glad summer finally came to your side of the world :) My flower beds are virtually nonexistent this year :( At least, the roses on the front look pretty.

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  5. I love it! I love tomatoes, too. I think they're my favorite food. I wonder if you live in a warmer place than me. Your stuff seems a lot farther along. There's nothing like fresh food from your own garden.

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    1. The last two months were pretty hot here. My tomatoes usually won't even start before July! But it's been pretty dry too, so I have to water ALL THE TIME!

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  6. hello lena,
    your veggie garden looks great. especially the zucchini.i love strawberries, i grow strawberries in window boxes.
    great blog!!!
    wish you a nice day,
    regina

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    Replies
    1. I wish I could add some window boxes but our old windows would allow it :( They don't open all the way. I absolutely love this gorgeous peony flower you have on your picture :) I already promised myself to plant peonies next year here too:)

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  7. What a beautiful garden. Gotta love a real apple tree, though! With as much salads as I eat, I'd love to get a little garden one day.

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    1. I LOVE this tree! It's been a couple of years since we got a good crop from it, so I'm pretty excited!!

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  8. My garden is doing pretty good too - lots of lettuce and my zucchini plants are bigger then they have ever been. My father-in-law keeps asking how our garden is doing, but most of the time I don't know - we have it on a timer to water it and if I go out there, I get distracted with weeding (always more to do) and then I don't get the other things done that I need to.

    And our apple tree is out of control too - we'll be canning applesauce too.

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    Replies
    1. I feel like I weed all the time too! I wish veggies would grow as quick as weeds, lol!

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  9. We got weeds yesterday and have more to do this afternoon.

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  10. Well it might be small but you've packed a lot into your garden!
    Do you know what variety of apple tree that is?

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  11. you have quite a garden growing! amazing. For us, we stick to cherry tomatoes...the bigger kind usually get eaten/ruined by birds or bugs.

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  12. How beautiful! And it doesn't look tiny to me at all! But then again, I have such a brown thumb (or whatever the opposite of green is). My oldest planted a truly tiny garden this year and it is so random. Corn, radishes, watermelon, and some beans. Whether or not any of it will thrive is anyone's guess, but he is such a natural gardener and tends to it well. Yours is lovely!

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  13. Sorry to say that I gave up on growing vegetables. Between the noxious weeds and grazing critters, it was more trouble than it was worth. However, I try to help my brother-in-law with his garden and I reap some of his harvest.

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