Behind the Scenes: My Garden

So, I may be cheating just a little bit in today's Behind the Scenes, but I just have to add more than one photo... Please take note: these are the garden items that are producing, because I can't "SHOW" you the failures, I just have to tell you about them! :)

I am a first year gardener! This is a big deal because I am a girly girl and don't like getting my hands dirty. The biggest thing that has held me back from having a garden is dirt... and weeds! I don't want to have to deal with them. Enter my garden gloves (I used them profusely for the one year we had chickens). I also am kinda lazy, not really a fan of hard work... but when you have four kids, work is a given, so God's working on me in this area.

But back to my garden... some of my successful items are tomatoes and zucchini... but can't just about anybody grow those?  I told my husband the other day that zucchini were a best bet when starting a garden because you just can't kill them, they just keep multiplying! To which he replied, "Doesn't that make them a WEED?" ... isn't he funny?



And tomatoes, I have soo many, but not many red ones!





But in reality, I have no idea what I'm doing. My dear husband bought me the book Square Foot Gardening, and I have been trying to follow that method for the most part. It was a huge investment in dirt and set up, but the good news is there is hardly any weeds!! Even when the garden went unattended during the first 2 weeks of July when my life followed God's plan instead of my plan.

Another tiny success in my garden is the strawberries... they are supposed to be "ever-producing" or something like that! My daughter, who has been begging for a garden for some time now (years) also begged for strawberries, so these were planted for her.  But the behind the scenes is the birds that I love so much were caught picking at them the other day! I'm not sure how much fruit WE will enjoy from this plant, but it was still fun... and I *think* they come back every year, so who knows!



And then, Watermelon... also one of those, "I doubt they will work, but we will try it" plants! and they are growing and there are at least 4 of them already and lots more flowers, so I might even have some to give away!!



What I'm not showing you are the pea plants that never happened, the green beans that have maybe THREE beans hanging, the lettuce that bolted, and the pepper plant that is being crowded by the weeds... I mean, zucchini! I also have some pathetic looking grape tomato plants that I'm still holding out hope for!!

By the way, since I took these photos last week, the watermelon has almost tripled in size, I found 2 tomatoes actually turning red and fresh strawberries that have NOT been pecked... yet!

Community Conversation: Do you have a garden? What are your favorite plants? Any gardening advice for this newbie?