Spring Gardening

Living where we do, we can have a productive garden year round. We grow kale, Brussels sprouts (sorta), onion, cauliflower and others in the winter, but I love watching how everything takes off in the spring.
We think that having a productive garden, no matter how big really, is an important part of a well rounded life. There is something elemental, a closer bond with nature, that comes with tending the soil and harvesting one's own food. I am grateful to have a little bit of land to have a garden. For this summer, we've planted cucumber, crookneck squash, zucchini, long beans, snap peas, four kinds of tomatoes, Anaheim peppers, a ton of basil and corn.

We're also fortunate to have an apricot tree, two peach trees, two juvenile Minneola trees, a blueberry bush, a baby avocado tree, three different kinds of grape vines, a walnut tree and a raspberry bush. We also have onion spread all over the place.

Most of the trees were here when we bought this small, ramshackle house. The rest are part of our plan to reduce expenses, to eat better and to have the confidence in knowing how our food is produced. Everything we grow here is organic and we do a lot of composting. We've planted from seed from trays and tend to them in our work room, we buy plants off of 'death row'.

We hope to be able to provide food for us, as well as be able to provide some for other local families. As we learn more, perhaps we'll be able to share what we've learned about productive gardening, and help it to spread in our community.
It's nearly summer, what are you growing?
(click on any photo to start a slideshow)