Garden Update #3

We got back late Tuesday night after a great trip to visit great friends in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  It was so fun and relaxing to spend some time away from home, but I was worried that my garden would be suffering when I got back, since it had been neglected for almost a week – and a hot week, with little rain!

Well, imagine my surprise when I went out to water yesterday morning and found this:

A good sized zucchini!  I was so excited! I think my neighbor was laughing at me because of how much I was exclaiming over this one zucchini!

The zucchini plants have completely taken over my garden boxes in the back.  I had no idea that the plants would get as big as they are.  The are pretty much shading out the other plants in the box – the peas, carrots and peppers, which makes me sad.  But, if I can get some great zucchinis off of my two plants than it will be worth it and I have learned my lesson for next year to give the zucchini LOTS of room!

Also, I have some beautiful tomatoes and cherry tomatoes growing in my front garden.  Just waiting for them to ripen up! But my pepper plants don’t seem to be doing so well.  They are still really small and no signs of any peppers yet.  We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with them.

I am learning so much in this first year of gardening. I really need to write it all down so I can make sure I remember it all for next year.  So, please humor me – I’m going to take a moment to write all of things that I have learned and want to do differently next year.  Maybe you’ll learn something from it too, maybe not. 🙂

What I’ve Learned in My First Year of Gardening

–My side garden bed next to my deck is not doing very well. I don’t think it gets nearly enough sun.  Either I won’t plant there, or I’ll try something else next year.  Maybe my zucchini plants would do well over there by themselves?  They would have more than enough space!

–I need to make sure to put a good fence around my lettuce and spinach plants next year so they don’t get eaten by critters.  It’s so sad to go out to check the garden and see that someone (really, something) other than your family has been enjoying your garden bounty.

–Don’t over plant my garden boxes – and I need MUCH bigger boxes! I just way over planted my garden box in the back, I was trying to get as much out of it as I could, but I didn’t realize how much everything would grow and take over and shade out the other plants.  I need to pay better attention to the amount of room that the seed packets say that the plants need!

–I would like to greatly increase the amount of plants that I grow. The most sugar snap peas that I ever harvested at once was 9, and usually it was more like 4 or 5.  While the peas were yummy to eat plain straight off the vine, I would love to have enough to actually use for a meal.  I didn’t want to plant too many this year, but now I realize that I didn’t plant nearly enough.

–Also, I want to greatly increase the overall size of my garden next year. While this year has been great for a manageable amount of gardening, it really is not producing the amount of food that I would realistically need to feed my family and have leftovers for preserving.  I would love to double the size of my garden next year.  This will probably come in the form of many more garden boxes in the front of our house.  Hopefully hubs will be okay with a large front yard garden!

I think that’s all for now.  I’m sure I’ll think of more and continue to learn more as the gardening season goes on, and I’ll be sure to share with you as I do.  I know, you can’t wait!

Now, what should I do with that lovely zucchini?  Muffins?  Cookies? Or just sauteed in butter for dinner?  Yum!