Look How My Garden Grows!

One of Ryan and my ultimate goals is to grow 100% of our own produce from our backyard. This year we decided to start with one garden bed, and were given all of our plants from friends and family. We recieved so many seedlings, that we actually ended up digging out 2 garden beds. I have to say, I'm actually shocked by how well our garden grew! I was told to expect the worst, because the first year of a garden doesn't produce much, but we have been pleasantly surprised by our harvest!

Here is our garden the day we planted it:

Ryan and I hand dug this first bed, and the second bed I dug myself. All of the rocks that are outlining the beds we found in the ground while digging! We decided that this first year we would experiment and see what grew, what didn't, how much we needed to water (very little, actually) and how much we ate.















So with a little help from some great lobster compost we found and mother nature, here are our gardens now:

Our cherry tomato plant decided to spread out instead of up, but we have been getting a pretty constant stream of tomatoes from it!

                   Our bell peppers are just starting to form...they must be a later-in-the-season thing?

We have more chocolate mint than we know what to do with! I think I'm just going to throw a bunch of it into a pitcher of water this weekend and see what happens! I've been really happy with the amount of basil we've gotten: enough for a couple of pestos and a LOT of tomato and mozzarella salad! Next year we are going to plant an entire bed of just herbs, because we use them so much, and there's nothing like fresh, organic herbs!

These are the tomato plants from the second garden bed. They have literally taken over and need bigger cages, because they keep falling over! Next year we are going to do a bed of just tomatoes as well, because we eat a lot of them and they take over everything!

The Ugly Tomatoes are absolutely blowing me away this year: they're huge! They're already bigger than my fist and not even turning red yet. So excited to eat these!

This was my harvest this afternoon! Our beets are finally done growing and I can't wait to eat them! In the middle are purple green beans. I'd never had them before this summer, but they are delicious!

I'm sad that the raspberries are coming to the end of their crop. Most of the perimeter of our property is covered in wild raspberry bushes that we enjoyed very much! And towards the end of them we noticed some black raspberries! They're so yummy!

I'm so glad we did a garden this year! It was a lot of work at first, but once it got established, it took off and needed little maintenance! After we composted, we threw hay over the dirt in the beds to control the weeds, which really did help! I haven't watered it with the hose in over 2 months; the rain is taking care of all of the watering. Next year, we are going to dig out 3 more beds for a total of 5, and I can't wait to eat even more yummy vegetables! We're also considering planting some fruit trees! :-)