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Growing a Garden

Fresh fruits and vegetables are my favorite aspect of gardening. I am NOT a green thumb by any means, but with the help of Boots and the kids, we make it work.
We have a rather large plot in the back of our yard and fertilized it with pig manure all winter. To prepare the area, Boots tilled the ground (like five times due to rain) to mix in the the fertilizer and break up the weeds that grew over the end of last season. After that, he raked out the big chunks, and leveled the ground.


The girls get a hand in picking out what we plant, and love going with us to the local greenhouse, Marty’s Yarden. This year, we planted extra fruits and vegetables because the pig and chickens will be able to eat any excess that we cannot keep up on.

We bought the following seedlings at Marty’s:
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Cucumbers
Strawberries
Bell peppers
Sweet peppers
Hot peppers
Zucchini
Tomatoes
Brussels sprouts

After some trial and error and performing some research, we were able to plot out our garden.

For companion planting, we knew we wanted to keep peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers together, so they are on the south side which will be easy to hoe and has good moisture and water. Squash and melon also complement each other, and are in the back rockier area because they are hardy and need extra space.
North side

Boo watering sprouts on the south side

 Due to our crazy weather and schedules, Boots actually planted the garden without us this year (luckily he had the help of his cousin Tay-tor, though). The kids did get to help pick out the plants the weekend before and planted their own little flower pots.


The good news is, I have not killed anything yet. :) I am so excited for our plants to start producing! So far, we have been able to cut lettuce. We also have some nice, big tomatoes on the vine, a flowering zucchini, and even some mystery plants.

Big beefy tomato

Zucchini flower

Mystery plants

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