A Bountiful Garden



Our garden is turning out to be a lot of work, but we are sure enjoying it.  It's our first somewhat organized garden in a number of years.  We've planted tomatoes and cilantro in pots before, but this year, if you've been reading the blog, you know we tore out half of our lawn and made a 10' x 10' space.  We are on the coast in central/southern California, so we don't get a lot of heat.

So far, we've been getting a lot of squash -- both zuchinni, yellow, and crook-neck, and also cucumbers! 

Next season, we'll plant fewer tomatoes, and more beans.  We'll forget about cilantro as it goes to seed too quickly for us to really benefit long term, and perhaps plant one more cucumber plant as we're really enjoying them.  Just made some refrigerator pickles and doubt we'll ever buy pickles again!  We hope to find a great "Pico de Gallo" recipe to help use up the tomatoes and chilies that we are hoping for. Now we need to figure out what to try and grow through the cooler seasons, and plan for it.

Lovin' this gardening, and being able to turn to our own resources for at least a few things we would typically buy at the store.  Thinking about chickens for eggs, but don't think we have enough room or even energy to take that on.  Well, little by little, if we can become a little more sustainable, even on a small scale, that's a good thing, right?



This yellow squash plant really took over the garden!






The squash and cucumber are abundant, and taste fabulous!

 


This is the most tomoatoes we've had yet.  I think we planted too many plants to close together.




Pretty and great tasting cilantro, but it goes to seed too quickly for us to use it.  Could use more beans!!





Really delicious recipe I found for Refrigerator Pickles!




Siamese Squash?  It was wonderful!



How does your garden grow?  Any good tips you'd like to share?  Next up for us in the gardening department is to start composting...reducing waste, and turning that "garbage" into super soil!