This year, I started keeping a record of what I’m harvesting. As of Wednesday, the total was at 39 pounds. Just for reference, I started keeping track of what I was harvesting on July 3rd. Anything we harvested before then hasn’t been included and we definitely harvested lettuce and other salad greens, strawberries, peas and varied herbs.
We have approx 40 feet of width to our back yard and an average of 12 feet between the back fence and the back of our house. It’s not a huge space, but I’m definetely looking for creative ways to get the most amount of food from the smallest amount of space and for the least amount of financial investment.
I haven’t crunched the numbers as far as specific fruits and veggies, but as I was skimming the internet today, I realized that I should be looking at the organic veggie/food and herb prices as opposed to the typical ones….because that what this stuff is. Home grown with lots of love and water, and this years incredible sunshine.
Although last year, my beans seemed to be the big bounty winners…..the incredible heat has not been kind to my bean plants and I’ve gotten WAY LESS than last year, BUT…..the tomatoe plants have been LOVING the heat and are definitely going to be this year’s big winners. Which I’m not upset about, at all.
In the “center” portion of my garden, which looks like this……
….you can see where the greenhouse is, in the top left corner. In the bottom left corner, you can see the tomatoe forrest, and the yellow containers with the hot pepper plants in them. The small red container is Judah’s and has a tiny tomatoe plant, an habenero and some garlic chives….just because he wanted to. And I LOVE encouraging my kids to be apart of this endeavor and to help foster their interest in gardening and eating the veggies.
Just above the Tomatoe Forrest, you can see some orange flowers, those are Cosmos – which look like this….
…..and they are planted in a Langley Township Recycling Bin (I had WAY TOO MANY) along with 2 MORE Tomatoe plants….also scrounged from the existing plants. Right beside them is another Langley Township Recycling Bin (Hey! Use what you’ve got available) with TWO HUGE Zucchini plants…
Today I harvested a Zucchini that was almost 2 pounds…YAY!
If you look back at the very first photo, to the right of the greenhouse, you can see my pumpkin plants completely covering my fence. I have 4 pumpkin plants growing vertically up and along my fence. Here is one of the pumpkins that is growing…I think we have 6 different ones in varying sizes, at this exact moment…
They will “orange up” as they get closer to being ready to harvest.
Next to the Pumpkins, is our little corn patch.
I actually grew corn last year in a large container and even though I started WAY late in the season, we still got enough for each of our family to have a piece. This year, I started much earlier and moved them to a patch of ground. We have 9-12 plants growing….I think and the cobs are starting to fill out.
My kids love going out and checking on the different veggies to see where they are at and to see what’s ready at any given time.
If you look in the picture with the full stalks of corn, you can see the leaves from my 4 summer squash plants (in 2 containers) to the left of the corn. You can also see the tops of the bush beans in the bottom right of that same picture. I staggered the planting of 3 containers of bush beans, and I also planted more bush beans in the bottom of the corn patch. While I had an over abundance of beans last summer, this year, I’ve gotten enough for meals, but not any to put away….which is sad. Hopefully, the temps cool a little and I still get a decent harvest to freeze a bunch. It was so nice to be able to just go to the freezer and pull out beans instead of buying them.
If you go back again to the top photo, to the right of the small corn patch, I have a section of Hubbard Squash…..it looks sort of like this….
It is also 4 plants that I’m growing vertically up my fence. I got the seeds from my momma, who got them from my Aunty Judy. Apparently, these squash make the best pumpkin pie and I’m looking forward to making Squash Soup and Pie from these beautiful Green Squash…
Next to and nestled in amongst, I have 4 Canteloupe Plants, also from my Momma, through my Aunty Judy…..
They are in two containers that I’ve situated on top of each other with the help of an old wooden chair that is mostly unsafe to be sitting on.
I was kind of surprised to have these actually grow and to see an actual cantaloupe. I know I shouldn’t be be, with my whole “plant it and water it” philosophy….but I was..
I have a few flowers tucked here and there and further down I have a row of strawberry plants, but they aren’t doing much at this exact moment, so I didn’t take a good picture of them. if you really wanted to look…in the picture of the Hubbard squash, they are on the far right side, under the hanging basket of flowers.
Well, That about does it for the center section, so I’ll try and wrap up the fourth and final section in the next post.
If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU for visiting my little patch of heaven. I hope you’ve enjoyed it even half as much as I do.
