Adventures in Home Owning - The Rogers Family Garden

Oh my gosh you guys... We have been having such an adventure learning how to garden in our backyard (Well, I have, Bill gets it and is teaching me the ways, which is fun for him, so we all win!). We built our own raised planter beds and filled them with compost and garden soil. I never got it, the appeal was lost on me. But I am WAY on board now. We planted almost everything from seed (a couple tomato plants as the exception). It is about more than just the produce and the end result, there is just a therapy in getting your hands dirty and working in your own backyard. I think it is giving both Bill and I a whole new round of pride of ownership.

The pictures above are before and after, the before is right after we prepped the dirt for the boxes (it looked much worse with some rocks randomly in this open area when we moved in). The end result looks fabulous, and it has spurred us to dream of owning a farm one day. We have plans to continue to make it beautiful and put rocks down in between with pavers and more, but in the meantime I thought I would share our joy.

In those boxes we are growing corn, zucchini, pickling cucumbers, green onions, a Paris market mix of lettuce, rainbow beets, radishes, brussel sprouts, eggplants, kale, rainbow carrots, jalapeno, serrano, and Thai chili peppers and three different kinds of tomatoes. We also have a herb garden (not pictured) that has lavender, rosemary, cilantro, sage and dill. There are sunflowers and dahlias planted too and this weekend we are buying berry bushes!

We are looking forward to our summer tomato and pepper harvest, and everything that comes in between. We are coming to the end of the oranges currently on our trees, and we know that come August the tangerines will be ready and we will go full speed ahead again with all our citrus. We have made our own pickles and limoncello in the last few weeks and wow it has all been such a fun process!

I am sure this is the first of many posts about the garden and everything that comes from it. I plan to post garden inspired recipes as we navigate the best ways to enjoy these veggies at their most fresh.

Can you feel my excitement?

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