I'm a bit of a hippie and wish we had a huge garden full of all the veggies and fruits we buy. I also wish we had chickens for fresh eggs. But we rent our home and have a wonderful, but very small backyard. We also have full-time jobs and a baby. But when I have chickens and a huge, lush garden I'll have figured out how to survive on 3 hours of sleep and Wesley will be able to dig, put away dishes, and vacuum.
Back to reality...
I've been thinking a lot about gardening lately. I know it's completely the wrong time in Texas to think about gardening, but I'm hopeful that someday it won't be 105 degrees. A few days ago I discovered Smart Gardener. Enter even more enthusiasm for gardening! It's definitely not the right time to plant, but it's plenty early to dream!
I'm ready to plant tomatoes, squash, lettuce, carrots, and peppers. I'm excited to be able to cook with veggies from our garden. I've been moderately successful with herbs in the past and feel such a sense of accomplishment when I make pesto with fresh basil from the backyard. How cool would it be to have pumpkins for halloween that we grow in our garden!?
With Wesley eating vegetables and fruits now, being able to provide him with organic food homegrown would make me feel really good. Of course, this might be completely impossible considering I've never been able to grow anything...
I've looked at a few different options for garden but probably won't put much time or effort into anything until we purchase a home in 2013. Once we settle somewhere, I'll be able to feel good the investment.
I even set up a garden pinboard. Follow along there as I figure out what I'm going to plant!
Do you garden? How does your garden grow?
i have a black thumb! In fact I should probably keep my comments to myself so as to not thwart your goals!! send me tomatoes. I love them!
ReplyDeleteYes! You can do it! If I can garden, anyone can. Just don't look at my garden right now :) How's Wesley liking the foods? Did it make him spit up extra? (I keep asking everyone that b/c Camon always spits up when I feed him solid food. Little bugger. :) )
ReplyDeleteI still haven't been able to get enough tomatoes and whatever else we grow on any given year from may garden to not have to buy any at the farmers' market, but it's still so rewarding and delicious to have some of your own home-grown produce. (We always have some tomatoes, and we haven't had good luck with sweet peppers but we keep trying. We do lettuce in the spring. We're also working on some asparagus and zucchini this year, though some critter has been enjoying the zucchini more than we have. And always herbs!) Go for it! Good luck! :)
ReplyDeletewe planted a square foot garden at my brother and sister-in-law's house and it was THRIVING withing a month. better than anything i've ever tried to grow. we're going to do one here next year. it uses a special planting mix and can utilize a smaller space with great results. they had a book on it (i think called "square foot gardening" :-)) that outlined everything. i was skeptical of the mix stuff - the supplies are a bit of an investment up front - but if you're planting in clay soil that tends to be dry, think it's the way to go! and it's still organic.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Renee--you can do a LOT with small gardens! I've only had container gardens thus far and I've had a huge amount of success!
ReplyDeleteOne year I tried pumpkins--and unless you really get that gigantic backyard I don't recommend it. Pumpkins need a bazillion feet of land to grow, and then they just yield one single pumpkin (at least mine did). While it was fun to have one I grew myself, I kind of wished I hadn't gone through the trouble.
Oh and I did have success with lettuce, squash/zucchini and various peppers in containers. I tried carrots a long time ago but they just require too much space!
have you checked to see what fall veggies grow in texas? in NC there's a great fall growing season--I wouldn't be surprised if texas had one too.