Fruits and Veggies in my Midwest Garden
Yep, like a total dork, I jokingly refer to my yard as a “yarden”. Sometime between moving in just over 10 years ago where I had one small plot of tomatoes and beans; I changed to completely integrating our 1/3 of an acre into a mini-food organic factory over the summer. We are able to grow almost most of our produce from mid-June on. Even though we are on a 1/3, the people who built our house graciously (and stupidly I might add) dropped it smack dab in the center of the lot, so I plant creatively in beds, mix flowers and veggies and even have the front yard planted with day lilies, watermelon, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. It’s fun to see what kind of Fruits and Veggies in my Midwest Garden grow well.
My potato bed is growing like crazy with all of the rain we’ve been having. I have to hill them again already! This bed also has peas,cauliflower and thyme. All good companions to benefit the other. Any one who says you need something fancy to grow veggies in is wrong. This bed is 4- 6 x 6 cedar boards screwed together and filled with dirt. You can use untreated pine too. It will last at least a few seasons, making more than worth the $25 it took me to build it. For that investment, I’ll get several hundreds of dollars of produce out of it over the season.
And I already have blossoms starting which means new potatoes by the end of June!
The carrots are almost ready to thin, mixed in with onions to repel carrot rust flies.
I have to remember to get out there and pick my asparagus more. I hate when I waste it. The weedlings have been out of control with all of the rain we’ve had. Anyone need any Maple tree seedlings? Holy cow.
This twine is our little experiment. I have a little alcove where the sand box goes and the kids can sit and play ( and it’s a nice long walk from the sand box into the house.).We are going to train climbing green beans to cover the rope trellis to make a secret garden for them. We are hoping it will be filled in by mid-July so they have a few months to enjoy it. I’ll keep taking pictures of it as we go along.
My Pineapple mint just took off this year, time for a few juleps. Are you in?
And my Lavender has also finally filled in. I can pick a bunch almost every few days now. Enough for baking and drying. It smells amazing early in the morning and I love weeding around it. When I brush up against it it releases just that bit of fragrance.
And I had a sweet surprise today, lots of little red strawberries ready to pick. I don’t know how the kids missed them, but their loss is my gain!
There was almost a full handful! And they had that lovely, sweet strawberry smell when they sat in the warmth of my hand. It smelled so summery.
How is your yarden growing?
And I am heading to the 3 French Hens Market this weekend. See you there!
Jen
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Strawberries look delicious. You have a fabulous garden……and no, no more trees for me. Thanks anyway.
Connie (akalou)
Your yarden is beautiful! And it looks very plentiful. Thanks for sharing!
Pam
Your yard is beautiful… and I’m in for a cocktail any time.
Pattie
i love your yarden. great name. thought it was a typo at first. see you tomorrow.
What a wonderful yarden you have! I have lavender growing too. I cut mine way back about a month ago and it really doing well this year. Those strawberries look so yummy!
Tammy
You are so ahead of me. Years ahead of me. I am always dreaming of my own vegetable garden mixed in with the rest of my cottage like garden. And every year I am deadset that this is the year that I am going to start and then the season always escapes me.
But your garden inspires me all over again. I am going to do it! I am!
Hello! I love your blog! My sister told me about it a long time ago and I’ve been following you – you know her because she works at Chase Bank.
I love your yarden! I would love to grow my own food and some flowers, but we travel so much in the summer there is no way to keep things alive without watering. I would love to see more!
tot
Oh HOW lovely! Our last house had a big garden but I have yet to embark on one here. I love your lavender……I’ll keep that in mind!