Garden Goodness

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~Ruth Stout

last year's garden

One of the things we love about living in our old house is that it came with a huge yard - something that isn't present in modern homes. Our plot is 60' by 100' which provides us with ample space for a vegetable garden. I started this garden last year and learned a lot from my mistakes, so I'm betting this year will be even better. And of course, because I love gardening so much I just HAD to blog about it.

Hoe while it is spring, and enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not turn out well. ~Charles Dudley Warner

I crammed as many vegetables as I could into my garden. My goal by the end of the summer is to have a freezer full of frozen beans, peas and carrots to use in side dishes and soups. I think it's great that I can give my family organic vegetables throughout the winter for a fraction of the cost that we would pay at a grocery store.

I traveled off my beaten path and am experimenting with growing butternut squash, cabbage and beets this year. I'll need to look up recipes for these veggies since I'm not very familiar with cooking them. If you have any suggestions on how to cook these veggies, I'd be most grateful!

If we were planning on staying in this house for quite some time, I would have invested in raised beds, with cedar chip pathways between each bed. My garden functions just as well, but pulling out the quack grass gets old fast.

My nesting got the better of me and I had Nialle, Nethanel and Nethanel's friend Jordan dig me another plot at the back of our yard. Yep, I've got MORE beans, peas and carrots in there. In total, I have planted two varieties of beans, three varieties of peas and three varieties of carrots. I also used up all the seeds in the packets...Nialle's already started to complain about how he's going to be sick of eating all this stuff by Christmas.

My mom's post on tea gardens inspired me to plant some chamomile and mint to dry for teas that I can enjoy throughout the winter. Although, I must say that fresh mint tea in the summer tastes much better than dried mint tea.

Our raspberries came with the house and they might be the one thing in my garden that I am looking most forward to enjoying this summer. Last year we had a bumper crop of raspberries which meant I had bags and bags of frozen raspberries in the freezer. Even after giving some of the bags away to friends, Nialle and I were still enjoying raspberry smoothies up until this March.



I'm even going to try to make my own raspberry soda this year. You should come over one day and enjoy some with me!

The lilac bushes are also another thrill of spring. Who needs Febreze when you have lilacs right outside your bedroom window? Both our bedroom and Liam's bedroom are heavy with the perfume of lilacs. It's very romantic.

It's Spring!

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. ~Margaret Atwood