Garden Lessons

I started getting child support again towards the end of last year and I was able to this spring get 2 raised garden beds along with the dirt to go inside of them. For Christmas last year my sister and niece got me some seeds and I went and got a few more things that I wanted to grow. I love gardening and I love eating what I grow. It's been over a decade since we have had a big garden. As the summer went by I wanted to get more of the raised garden beds. Now is the perfect time to get them. I am putting my Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/46yOXU9 so you can check it out. If you do purchase I will get a small amount of money. My biggest complaint is they are measuring a foot smaller than what is listed. The two that we have has provided with more room to grow more of what I wanted to grow had we just used pots like we did in the previous years. It's truly been a blessing and I have loved growing my own food. My goal is to get 2 more so I can also put herbs in the ground and to also grow even more. The goal is to be as self sufficient as possible and not have to rely on going to the grocery store to get veggies and herbs. Plus the stuff I have grown tastes so much better than what I get in the store anyways.

So what did I plant this year? I planted cucumbers, burgundy and provider bush beans, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, okra, bell peppers, broccoli, watermelon radish, and carrots in the garden beds themselves. I planted sweet and Thai basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and sage in pots beside the garden beds. Next year I would love to have 4 raised garden beds so I can grow more of the veggies and put the herbs in the ground. The zucchini and yellow squash so much bigger than I expected. They were taking over the garden bed. I loved the amount that I had gotten. I want to plant more beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, and peppers next year. I want to can and freeze a lot of what I grow. I am planning on drying the herbs. My sister want some of the sweet basil that I planted and I am going to sen her what I have dried.

This year the weather was weird. I live in the south and it normally gets warm earlier in the year. I normally plant right around Easter but it wasn't until towards the end of April when I started planting. For a while I thought I was going to lose all 5 pots of basil because the leaves were getting moldy. I did lose most of my purple basil and I'm bummed about it. The other basil did come back and I am grateful for it. I was able to send some herbs up north to my sister and a friend of mine.

My birthday was last week and mom and the kids got me a dehydrator for my herbs. I can also make jerky with it but I am going to start with drying herbs.

Next year I want to try and have a fall garden after all of the summer veggies are done. I don't know what I would plant in the fall. I am going to looking into it.