Rowland Garden

It's been a while since I have posted about our garden. 

We had a ton of rain at the beginning of the summer and that coupled with our yard not having a ton of sun (due to tons of trees), made our squash and zucchini grow mildew and not produce anything. So we took those up along with the things we planted too late in the year (carrots, radishes and beets).

We have learned that part of having a garden is the trial and error part of it. Sometimes we aren't sure where to plant what, when to harvest certain things, how much water, what kind of soil, what keeps bugs away and so on. 

So after the plants where in the ground, the rain came and the garden began to either flourish or something died off. That left us with around a dozen tomato plants, several cucumber plants, black-eyed peas, green beans, okra, eggplant, cayenne peppers, jalapeno peppers and 2 basil plants. 

(two rows of black-eyed peas) 

(harvest from just one day) 

Scooter has been a HUGE help in the garden this year. He helps pull weeds (which are still crazy through out the garden) and loves to help harvest the veggies. 

(eggplants) 

Baby A likes to help for a little bit in the garden but typically a lady bug or frog catch her attention and then she is too focused on that, to pick any more veggies. 

With all the weeds that have gotten out of control, I fear what kind of critters we will find in the garden. So far lady bugs, frogs, bugs and this HUGE grasshopper are all we have found. 

As the summer creeps by our garden has started really producing a ton of veggies. 

This was all from just one day of harvest. 

We have canned 6-8 quarts of pickles and a quart of pickled okra. We have frozen lots of black-eyed peas, green beans and breaded okra. Tim eats a cayenne pepper or two at nearly every meal. In fact it has become the fun thing at the dinner table to see who gets the hottest pepper and if they can eat it all. 

Baby A and I don't participate! :)