MY GARDENS 2013

Zucchini, Rudbeckia, and Violas

I love gardening...well, gardens.

From the time I was a little girl helping my grandmother pull weeds, pick lettuce and tomatoes and fun things like that, I knew when I grew up I would live on a farm and have a huge garden!  I'd grow all sorts of things and especially kohlrabi!  Kohlrabi was "prized" - there never seemed to be enough; it's like the texture of a radish, crisp, about the size of an orange, and tastes similar to cabbage.  I remember sitting at grandma's kitchen table, watching her slice it thinly, give it a dash of salt and then hand it to any of us grandkids or others who might be sitting there waiting impatiently for a piece - gram had her share too of course!  And to can tomatoes, I'd have to grow tons of tomatoes and can them just like grandma.

So.....I'm not quite living on a farm.  We have a few acres and the first
Spring (2002) we had a BIG garden, 100' long by 50' wide.  Ok, so we tilled 100' x 50'.  I honestly planted lots of stuff and weeded and watered daily, but one day the weeds seemed to have multiplied a thousandfold!  I don't know what the heck happened.

The next year I cut the garden size in half.  Year after year I never got out of the garden as much as I put into it.  Then I made a small garden up near the house - that worked much better.  I think because I wasn't at home (I have to have a job) I couldn't devote enough time to taking care of the big garden and it became overwhelming.

Well, anyway.  Not on the "grandma scale", but I've had some luck and I've canned tomatoes and pickles but have yet to grow the precious kohlrabi.  Last year the big hit was zucchini, it was very prolific and the chickens ate well!  Also, I'm learning that peppers LOVE to be grown in containers and they are beautiful and grow amazingly on my front deck.  I'm liking container gardening ;)

This year, while perusing a garden center, I happened upon corn that had been started in seedling packs.  Started corn!  That was too funny.....of course I had to buy a pack.  A customer at the center saw me and my friend in front of the corn, chuckling, and the customer remarked "yes, I thought it was funny too but I bought some last year and it grew!"  I came home with five packs - six little stalks in each.  Let's see what happens!

Gardening dreams...yeah, let's see what happens ;).

Small garden - still lots to plant but I had to show the started corn!