The Garden is in!

I am happy to announce that our garden is in! I have been looking forward to planting a garden on our property for some time now. Last year when we moved in it was past time for planting and there was so much else going on that we didn't even try. But this year we were more prepared.


I debated for a long time about where to put our garden since we have so many trees and thus it is difficult to find a spot that gets enough sun to support a garden. The spot we chose is on the left side of the house (garage side, facing the road) and I am hopefull that the sun it recieves will be sufficient. There is one side of the garden that gets more shade so we will see how that end does compared to the rest.

We decided to try "no till" gardening this year. This was a new method for me, my family always tilled the garden in the past to prepare it for planting. However, since this is a brand new plot it posed some challenges, primarily, what to do with the grass? We would have needed a really heavy duty tiller to till in the grass and lifting the sod first was something that we really didn't want to put the back-breaking sweat into! So my dad suggested the "no till" method". So what you do is mark out your plot, then spray the entire area with Round-Up. Which kills everything!! (Eventhough they claim it won't kill the grass.) Let it sit for a day or two and then plant. Within a week all the grass and weeds have died creating (in time) fertilizer for your plants and also protecting somewhat from future weed growth. And then (hopefully) in about two weeks your vegetables start growing.

So this year we have a lovely array of vegetables selected. First off is "Silver Queen" sweet corn. Corn is a bit complicated because you have to have at least four rows for pollination. However, I am (as my husband says) a corn snob, and prefer to have mine fresh off the stalk. I'm always declaring that corn on the cob from the store is "old" and so I decided I must have a least a small amount of corn to satisfy my craving for the freshest available! Then there are green and yellow beans of course, also at their very best when fresh. Roma tomatoes, great for sauces and salads. Green peppers, absolutely a must for the wife of a Cuban husband (most cuban recipes call for green pepper). Also red peppers for salads and other deliciousness! Then yellow squash and zuchinni. Daniel and I are huge, huge fans of squash, Josue meerly tolerates it. So Daniel and I will be eating a lot this year, but that's ok, I'm all for healthy veggies even if I can't get Josue to eat more than a child's serving. Then, let's see, butternut squash, excellent because they keep well, they should last us into the winter. Butternut are great for "pumpkin" pie, you can hardly tell the difference. And then finally, cucumber, which I do not like at all, however Josue loves them and hopefully Daniel will too because there will be a lot of them! The seed packet said that this particular plant is very prolific! Yikes!

So there you have it. Right now, except for the tomatoes and peppers (for which I purchased plants rather than starting from seed), our garden is just a patch of long grass with sticks stuck in the ground to mark the rows. We're super excited to see how it grows and also for all the money that it will save us this summer in produce!!

Do you have a garden? What are you planting this year? (Leave a note in the comments.)