I have to say that in my next life I may be a farmer. Growing a home garden is such a satisfying experience. I decided to raise a garden to grow my own greens. I also wanted to grow herbs, winter squash, and bell peppers.
Growing your own vegetables is a personally rewarding experience. There is something magical about putting seeds in the soil and watching a plant and its fruit emerge. The cost savings are amazing. This year I did not have to buy a single tomato, bell pepper, herbs, or greens.
My backyard is a super steep hill that is awesome for training, but not the easiest to work in. So, my amazingly talented husband built me a huge raised bed out of cedar.
There seems to be something magical about a garden for children too. The kids know the importance of growing our own vegetables. It is fun to watch them explore the garden and pick their lunch.
The girls know where to find bell peppers and banana peppers.
I can send the boys out to pick some parsley or sage for dinner.
They know how to identify the different varieties of squash.
I have no formal training and sometimes things don’t work out perfectly. Like our attempts at the irrigation system in the above picture… total flop. I can say that my secret to a year-round garden is persistence.
For example, some little green worm ate all of my green and dino kale last year. So this year I moved all of my greens (except beet and carrot) to pots on my front porch. Success! Then I learned from my buddies at the farmer’s market that planting garlic and onions around your plants keeps pests away. Another win!
I also am religious about watering and composting. I compost all of our veggies, paper bags, grass clippings, egg shells, and coffee grounds. We use a tumbler compost bin from Costco. I compost about once every 6 weeks. After I compost there is a visible boom in the plant’s growth. Remember, you eat what your plant eats!
Here are a few more picks from my garden-prepared foods!
Big dinner salad.
It’s fall here in NC and we have a couple more good months of garden friendly temperatures. After that, I will continue to raise my herbs and greens on the front porch where they get the most sun. At night, I will cover them all with some hideous flannel sheets (it looks awesome) and uncover them during the day. I can supplement with winter veggies from the farmer’s market.
And, then we start all over again in the spring! Growing vegetables at home is super rad!
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