August 18, 2015

Garden Lessons




The above photo is a quick snap of the entrance to our perennial flower garden out back.  It came with the house and we had no idea of the size or scope when we bought the house in the middle of winter a few years ago.  There are tons of flowers that bloom from early spring straight through to fall frost.  It's lovely and terrifying and I have a love/hate relationship with it.  I am not a gardener.

Over the last 10 or so years, Steve has humored my efforts to grow some vegetables each summer, first in Merrimack and now here.  Last year I had a small-ish garden by the house that quickly got out of hand and ridiculous.  This year my darling husband lovingly built me three raised beds out behind the house and I did a bunch of reading on the internet about square foot gardening and how to plant and what to plant, etc., etc.  Let me just say that one should never believe everything you read on the internet.

It's now mid-August and the raised beds have been a great success and I have been amazed and slightly horrified at how BIG things grow and how fast they get out of hand.  I am STILL not a gardener and it is very apparent when one sees how crazy things are in my beds.

Summer squash and butternut squash - crazy!


Tomatoes escaping cages

Cucumbers up and over the trellis and taking over where the lettuce used to be

Peas and beans now intertwined and way taller than all the poles

A tangle of green that makes picking like a hide-n-seek experience.
 It has been nice to have fresh produce but next year I think I am planting WAY LESS and will hopefully manage to keep up better and use up more. Though the chickens are definitely enjoying the extra stuff we can't eat and I've also been able to take a bunch of fresh veggies in for our garden tithe at church several times as well as share with friends and family.

Each year I learn new garden things... and I am fairly certain I will never be a 'real' gardener, but that is okay... dabbling is sort of fun and yummy at times.

Blessings on the journey~