Friday, June 17, 2011

Gardening Day

Yesterday was a nice, cool day in Bethlehem... perfect for gardening! K and I went to get my license taken care of in the morning, and then we found out about a big half-off sale at a local gardening store. They're moving to another location and were selling everything at the nearby location rather than absorbing the inventory. So we went to take advantage of it, and save some money... always a good thing, right?


K picking out a sturdy barrel


Our neighbor has this cute little area in back where she put some planters and filled them with various veggie plants. We were inspired to make our own little veggie garden in the same manner. Plus, working in Kyle's garden sparked the gardener in both of us! So we bought some tomato plants... a golden yellow sugar grape, an heirloom pink, plus one from Kyle's garden that we aren't sure of, but could be a beefsteak tomato plant. A bean vine is in the back of the barrel...


Whiskey barrel garden
Bean vine, I think. No tag on it... maybe I'm wrong?


We also got a strawberry plant....

Behind the strawberry is a pot of mixed lettuce greens
And we got some herbs...
Pineapple mint

Oregano, dill, rosemary, chives (not shown) & chamomile
...including some cat grass, which Jimmy Boo and Beckham couldn't leave alone once I'd put it out!
It was hard to get him to stop moving for a pic!


It was a good day full of planting! We're both excited about having our own veggies this summer! Last year Kyle gave us a lot of tomatoes, jalapenos, and zucchini. We plan to experiment with what grows... it's going to be fun, and tasty! I love homegrown tomatoes. They are the reason I like tomatoes at all. The ones you buy in grocery stores aren't always the best tasting... if that was all I had to compare, then I wouldn't even like tomatoes! Lucky for me, my mom always grew lots of veggies in our backyard, so I knew what they were supposed to taste like. 


Did you grow up with a garden? Some kids never even know what veggies look like as they're growing. I remember hearing that some inner-city kids had no idea that corn started out on a cob, because they'd only had it from a can. That's really sad! I saw corn grow like weeds in my own backyard, and touched the silky pale yellow "hair" from the head of the corn... these things are etched in my sense memories, and inform my view of vegetables. I knew how veggies grew from when I was young because of my grandparents, too. They had a small farm. We'd pull potatoes out of the ground like lost pearls on a string... and pick bright green peas and shell them... and pull scallions out of the earth, bang them against our legs, and take a bite! (My grandpa did, but I wasn't fond of raw onions when I was a kid.) The mysteries of vegetables was a wonder to me. I think that's why I always have loved them.



Above are some swiss chard from my mom's garden that I took before I moved out to PA. She had several raised vegetable beds that my step-dad built. They'd plant chard, lettuces, eggplant, scallions, garlic, tomatoes (various mouth-watering heirloom tomatoes) and lots of other green goodies. I loved her garden and wanted one for my own. One birthday, Jim (my step-dad) built me my own raised bed garden frame, and put it into my backyard. I planted some lemon cucumbers, zucchini, cherry and pear tomatoes, thyme, basil, chives, dill and oregano. We even tacked on copper wire along the edge to keep the snails and slugs out of my veggies. (It works until something covers the copper, like a leaf or something, which the snails use as a bridge.)


I love gardening! I hope you enjoyed this LONG post about vegetables, ha ha! I hope I didn't bore you. I'm just really excited about this, and I really would like to know your own experiences as a child... if you knew how veggies grew, or if you despised them! And if you DID love them, was it because you got fresh ones to eat, and if you didn't like them, was it because you mainly got them from a can? I'm really curious if there's a correlation...  

3 comments:

Orion Designs said...

Home grown tomatoes are just about the yummiest thing I've ever tasted. I had a big garden when I lived in NY, but never since. Tomatoes need a longer season than we have up here. Plenty of people grow them in greenhouses, but the results are not the same to my taste buds!

life is happy most of the time. said...

wow! your garden is beautiful!! we started one this year too! its so fun to watch it grow! love u! xx

Terriaw said...

What a fabulous day, filling up your garden with such a great selection of plants. It's so therapeutic tending to the garden each day. I grew up learning how to grow a flower garden, and got into vegetable gardening when we bought our first house. Now it's fun to tend to both. And to visit the garden centers!

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