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Friday, May 24, 2013

How Our Garden Grows . . .

MUCH smaller now when compared to several years ago when the Frog & PenguINN veggie garden took up most of the back yard as “Farmer” Grenville set up 5 large beds.

IMG_7533garden overall 0628 (2)All that gardening, produced a LOT of fresh vegetables — TOO many for only 2 people. There were giveaways to friends and neighbors and deliveries to out-of-state family members during summer road trips.veggie outputIn recent years, Grenville progressively downsized the garden beds from 5 to 3 and finally to only 2 beds.

gardens past collageFor the past couple of years, the F&P veggie garden has been downsized to the footprint of Grenville’s former greenhouse.garden layout (2)This year’s garden includes eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Our larger gardens were fun projects the first couple of years, but required planting, tending, and harvesting — all of which we did. We froze veggies, canned tomatoes and pickles, made salsa, and ate a lot of zucchini dishes; we had a LOT of those veggies, as did other local gardeners who offered some to us.veggie collageThe garden frogs are back  and so are the garden flamingoes . . .garden friendsflamingo collageThis year, friends have planted larger gardens, so we’ve volunteered to relieve them of excess veggies. Also, we make weekend visits to a Saturday Farmer’s Market in the next town which offers a variety of locally grown produce and items such as eggs and honey.

Anyone else planting a veggie garden, large or small ?

17 comments:

DeniseinVA said...

I am impressed, your neighbors must love being your neighbors.

MadSnapper said...

i had no idea gnomes could drive a tractor or that you have flamingos up there in the cold north... i love all the veggies you are growing. maybe you should advertise there is room for a large garden, might help the sale

Triumph said...

Nice! You two don't have enough projects so this should give you something to keep you active in those hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer. Our garden only grows rocks so we've resorted to planter boxes. We haven't planted tomatoes yet: too cold still.

Latane Barton said...

I was just over at the farmer's market in a nearby town this morning. Got me some good stuff to eat and it's early yet in the season. Just wait until the veggies really start producing. Yum

Anvilcloud said...

Quite a change. Everything in its time.

Rebecca said...

There are days when I consider the Farmer's Market a better prospect than growing my own veggies!

Leonora said...

I wish we had your dark, rich-looking soil over here on the western side of the state. All red clay on this end! We've modified our garden to raised beds this year and importing soil. Imagine buying dirt!
Enjoy those veggies!

Ginnie said...

I wish I had the green thumb that you two have. My whole try this season is a hanging tomato plant !

Doris said...

Dale just planted some tomatoes and peppers. I think that will be it for us. Happy gardening!

Anonymous said...

I have a small vegetable garden but will make it a bit bigger this year. I haven't dared to plant anything there yet, we had frost on Friday night.

So far only chives, two rhubarb plants and a goose berry plant grows there but soon I'll have at least squash there too and I might buy a tomato plant to see if it survives, we do have a much cooler and rainier summer than You do :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

Charlotte Wilson said...

I have always wanted a big garden but we do not have the soil or sun for it. All I can do is grow tomatoes and blackberries on the small side of our house that gets the sun. And plant some herbs in pots on my deck.
Your garden looks wonderful!

Buttercup said...

No garden for me, but I look forward to lots of time at the Green Market.

Lois Evensen said...

Looks terrific and I certainly understand the garden downsizing. Years ago I had so many flowers. Now I'm lucky to have some keep coming back because I am not home enough to properly care for them. When I do get home we have so many things to do in the short ten weeks at home that I barely get out to turn the compost. :(

Anonymous said...

No gardening for us this year. Thankfully, we have a large farmer's market nearby that we can visit. I'm looking forward to watermelon!

CountryDew said...

We finally put our tomatoes in the ground yesterday - I was starting to think we would never get to it. Your plot looks very nice.

(GBS) NewsFromTheHill said...

No garden for me, I still don't have any shrubs etc around the house so that'll come first. Especially since we have a wonderful farmers market!

Debbie said...

oh what a beautiful garden!! i haven't planted one thing yet this year, i need inspiration!!

we have such great farmers markets and locally grown produce, that makes it a little harder for me to become inspired but there is nothing funner then going to the backyard to "pick" dinner!!