The T Zone: My Veggies

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

My Veggies

When we bought our first house over 10 years ago, the backyard had a beautiful vegetable garden. It was really huge and was able to fit just about any plant out there. The man who lived there before us had planted it every year for over 30 years so the soil was very rich and even I, who does NOT have a green thumb, was able to grow tons of great veggies.
When we moved to our current home almost 7 years ago, the backyard was perfect except for one thing....no garden. Every summer I said I wanted to get one started, but spring would come and summer would end and it just didn't get done.
One of the reasons I think we avoided it was because of the work it would take to clear a spot in the yard. One summer, we'd done it for our swing set area.....
Another summer, we'd done it for some landscaping....
so we knew just how much of a pain it was to skim off the grass and dig through the roots.
Then a couple years ago, as I was mentioning this all to a client of mine, she told me of a great way to clear a spot without as much work. In the fall, we would map out the area we wanted and lay down about 3 -4 layers of newspaper and wet it all with a hose. Then you rake the leaves onto the newspaper and wait.
So, we did that. And last year in the spring we rented a roto-tiller to get it all mixed together.
That proved to be quite the pain in itself. We have a ton of mature trees around our house and the roots alone were giving Jay a lot of trouble. But....we got it done, and I planted my garden.
The seeds started to grow into plants and get bigger and bigger and even started to flower, but they never produced any vegetables. Ever. Every flower that should turn into a cucumber or green bean or zucchini just eventually died and fell off. Nothing.
I knew the first couple years would be rough until the soil had a chance to get more primed, but I didn't expect that.
Okay, well moving on to this year. We rented the tiller again and it was much easier this time. I planted and waited.
I am very happy to say that last night I ate my first 2 cukes out of my garden. YAY!
There are plenty of veggies coming in this time. I'm sure the weather has been a part of it as well. We've had a good combo of sun and rain this year, and someone told me that even though super humid days can be good for keeping moisture in the soil. Not sure if that's true or not.
I've yet to see a zucchini starting but they flowers are huge and bright, unlike last year, so I'm sure it won't be long.
There's nothing like a fresh garden veggie....I just love them.
The boys are excited to pick the green beans today, and I'm excited to let them.....those things can run a muck and be hard to keep up with.
Here are some pics of my garden......