Day 206
Once the plants started growing. Not sure if it was the consistent watering, the coffee grounds, the chicken poop, or the combination of all three but whatever it was, it was working. Our plants didn't grow. They exploded. In some cases, it became hard to walk in the previously easy to navigate woodchipped pathways between rows of raised beds. For many years, we have been members of a CSA (community-supported agriculture) program that sent us fresh vegetables every week. One particular growing season, we received beets every week. We made beets every way possible. With our garden’s success, I think we'll be doing the same with zucchini, peas, radishes, and tomatoes.
As we expected, our first year of having an expanded garden has taught us lessons that will help us make improvements to the garden in future seasons. We’re learning about spacing, plant locations, and timing issues along with figuring out a system for the daily tasks associated with the garden, especially when it starts producing.
We’ve had to water less and harvest more. We have worked with our kids about learning how to check for ready to pick produce. Regularly, the kids go out and pick raspberries and peas. The ones they don't eat while they pick make it back to the house and are wonderful and healthy snacks.
The kids also love seeing the tomato plants go through their cycle. From blossoms to tiny green balls to what will soon be a colorful array of various types of tomatoes, we will have polenta of tomatoes to preserve and save for delicious food all winter long.
One explosion we didn’t expect was our zucchini. While we enjoy zucchini and have a menagerie of methods in preparing them, the sheer number of zucchini bombs exploding in our overgrown beds is more than we can handle. We are giving away zucchini left and right and we can't keep up with the amount the garden keeps giving us.
Our turtle and chickens enjoy the plants we are growing. From lettuce, kale, and sliced up radishes and zucchini, we are happy to share our bounty with our animal friends.
However, not everything the garden produces is wanted.
