Our Garden

Our garden is going crazy this year.  Everything is so huge and taking over we can barely walk between some of the boxes because the plants are so big.  We have 3 extra tomato plants.  They sprung up on their own from last years seeds.  

I got a spiral veggie cutter and made these squash noodles for dinner last week.  They were so yummy and healthy!   

 

Just some stuff

Todd built an amazing trellis on our back garden box.  I love it!

I finally decided to decorate mini even more. 
As if my crazy running decals weren't enough ... now I have a HUGE Generator one.  Why not?  I drive a minivan!

The view from my kitchen window

I am a Pioneer

5 hours later and I had 40 jars of crushed tomatoes.  This winter will be yummy!

Bountiful Harvest

After being gone a week my garden was VERY ready to be harvested.   I love my garden!

I love my garden

Eating from my garden

I love having a garden.  Our harvest is going great this year - way better than last year.  I love that I can walk outside and pick fresh veggies for dinner.  Tonight everything I ate for dinner came out of the garden.  Delish.

 

The Veggie Stand

Luke has wanted to do a lemonade stand all summer but he and Tayson decided that with all the extra veggies we have to do a veggie stand instead.  They were very excited when their first (and only) customer came and bought stuff and gave them a $2 rip (thanks Traci).  Then Zeus got out and it started raining so they closed up shop.....but we will set the stand up again soon because they loved it and everyone loves fresh veggies!

Fresh Veggies

Hooray... my garden is producing!  I picked and ate my first zucchini from my garden.  It was so much fun.  I added a yellow squash from my mom's garden, and onion and fresh basil from my garden and sauteed them up in a little butter.  I could eat this every day!

And my green beans are ready to eat too.  I picked a huge bowl full and we ate them for Sunday dinner this week. 

Too much produce

While my mom is gone to Alaska we get to take care of the garden.  And trust me there is lots to do.  Every few days we pick this much food. Then because we can't eat anywhere near this much (plus our garden has food coming off too) the kids get to walk around the neighborhood giving it away.  Maybe we should open a veggie stand and sell them for 0.25 cents :)


Speaking of my garden...isn't she pretty? Every night when it starts to cool off I go outside and spend time watering, weeding, checking on the fruits of my labor, and just enjoying the quiet beauty of my garden.  I guess I finally understand why my mom loves gardening so much.

The Garden

Buying plants with us

Everything is planted

Sophie bought this special bird for her pot

Almost all of the strawberries came back this year

We decided to try something different and use trellises for our squash and cucumbers

Garden Prep

It's that time of the year.  We have to freshen up the dirt and get ready for another year.  While the girls were working the boys decided to play mushball.

That is not a bed

He likes to dig himself a hole then lay in it.  Not a good idea when the garden is planted.

Final Product

I delivered the last of the cans to my parents house today.  I love to see all this amazing food that they grew and we canned.  And my dad's shelves are good looking too.  It makes me happy to know that we preserved all this food.  I can't wait to do even more next year.  This doesn't include the stuff I kept at my house :)

The Garden - the end

We finally picked the rest of the veggies and cleaned out the plants to get ready for the winter.  For our first year of gardening I think it went well.

My Garden is Complete

I love my garden gnome!!

My little bunny

 Todd and I harvested lots of carrots from the garden today.  And Sophie liked to chow on them Bugs Bunny style.  I love her face. 

Canning Peaches

My dad called me and said "are you busy tonight we have some peaches to can?"  I wasn't busy so they came over with 9 bags of peaches they picked from Heidi's house.  We ended up with 31 quarts of peaches and 18 jars of jam....oh and a few jars of green beans too!  I am really loving canning and it's amazing to me how much food we have preserved this summer.  I really like spending time with my mom and dad in the kitchen too :)

Canning

I've taken on canning this year - don't ask me what I was thinking. The other night my parents brought over a few boxes of cucumbers and tomatoes and we went to town.  My dad and I canned 7 quarts of pickles while my mom made salsa.  Then the next day I had to work from home (Sophie was sick) so I spent my time working on my laptop on the kitchen table and canning - I love multi-tasking.  I ended up with 14 quarts of pickles, 7 pints of salsa, 7 pints of stewed tomatoes, 2 quarts of roma tomatoes and 9 pints of green beans.  Not a bad days work.  Yesterday at family dinner we had a family council and discussed who wants what and passed around a sign up sheet.  I love my big family.  So I have requests for what people want and I'll be getting more produce from my parents garden so I can get to work. 

 

On a side note:  I finally had a summer squash growing in my garden.  I was so excited and couldn't wait to eat it.  Then when I was out picking green beans Sophie decided she was bored with the green beans and picked my squash.  So sad.  Hopefully I'll get another one soon.