Gardening

I've been wanting to post some pictures of our garden for a long time, and today is the day! This is the first year we've really had a garden. We grew tomatoes & strawberries & watermelons a few years ago, but we've mainly relied on veggies & tomatoes from my parents garden. So a garden of this size is a first for us. We actually have 2 gardens though! We are growing corn, white half runners, watermelons, potatoes, and onions in what we call the "upper" garden, which is attached to my parents garden next door, and it's about 2-3 times the size of the one behind our house.

We have enjoyed squash (yellow crookneck & zucchini) for a few weeks now. Tim has never liked squash, but he does now! Yeah! And I have learned SO much about how to prepare them to eat. I learned that we love to eat zucchini raw. My first couple of attempts at cooking squash were learning experiences! But since then I've managed to saute, fry, boil, and bake them... make them into patties after grating... make an "off the chain" casserole (my mom found the BEST recipe!)... and put some in the freezer (in patties, casseroles, and sauteed ones).

I've realized that green beans are A LOT of work and VERY time consuming!!! I've been picking them, washing, stringing, snapping, blanching, and putting them in the freezer. I like the white half runners, but those strings! No matter how thoroughly I think I've stringed them, inevitably, I find tons of strings after cooking them! Anybody have any suggestions for that problem?

I've been thrilled with how well our jalapeno plant has done! And we've really enjoyed jalapeno nachos, fresh salsa, and cheese dip! My mom found a recipe for jalapeno sauce to put up in jars that sounds amazing & I can't wait to do that. I've learned you can seed & dice them & put them in the freezer. I haven't pickled any of them yet, and I'm not sure I'll do that this year... maybe next year when I have more jalapeno plants!














Tomatoes are my favorite & just started ripening last week! Whoohoo! :-) I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fresh tomatoes out of the garden, and with almost every meal! I've already put some in the freezer for soups.

























Here's a picture of one of my red bell pepper plants...














One of our watermelons...














And one of my herb garden... Lavender, Oregano, Thyme, and Rosemary :-)






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And I want to extend a great big thank you to my mom & dad for all of their expertise! I have placed a million phone calls to my mom for details, advice, and recipe help after we've "harvested". My dad has helped plow and taught us the ins and outs of planting and growing. We couldn't have done it without them. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
It's been a lot of hard work, but I know it will be worth it!