Tag Archives: produce

Garden Preparations

I have lost track of time, not sure how many weeks old my baby seedlings are! They are coming along beautifully. I can just taste the tomato cucumber salads. The homemade pesto on pasta and pizza. Mint in my mojitos or on fruit salad. Zucchini bread, grilled zucchini. Pumpkin EVERYTHING! Salsa, hot peppers on pizza… Boy oh boy is my mouth watering. All I have to say is this better be a good year for the garden, I have such big plans!

This has been such a crazy winter. We have had snow here, in South Carolina! It is warm, then cold, then warm, then cold again! Last year we planted the garden St. Patrick’s Day. This year we are still waiting. We are still expecting lows in the 30s next week so we wait. The lettuces are already planted, but they tolerate the cold better.

20140318-110853.jpg
This year we put some covering over all the rows. We grow weeds incredibly well and I just couldn’t keep up with them, it is a HUGE garden. Someday the boys will be able to help weed, until then I hope this works!

20140318-110927.jpg
The far right here with the hoses running through is where all the lettuces and carrots go. The asparagus in the very last row next to the garage.

20140318-112003.jpg
This flat is mostly tomato plants, the smaller ones in front are peppers.

20140318-112109.jpg
Hello my dear sweet tomatoes, I can’t wait to eat you up!

20140318-112157.jpg
Last week I started more seedlings of everything. We are hoping to pace the harvest out a little.

20140318-112247.jpg
My darling basil, I can taste the pesto already!

Let the 2014 Garden Season Begin!

20140211-074413.jpg
This will be the sight of my kitchen table for a while! Sunday we started our 2014 garden season by getting the seeds sowed indoors. We are lucky to live in the South where the garden season starts early. Last year we planted our seeds and seedlings outside St. Patrick’s Day weekend!

20140211-074622.jpg

20140211-074628.jpg

20140211-075112.jpg
We started 8 varieties of tomatoes. Have I mentioned how much I love tomatoes fresh from the garden?! Sean now enjoys grape and cherry tomatoes too so I can count on him to help me eat them. Needless to say we have a ton (assuming a good year) and share so many. In the Columbia, SC area…stop by this summer!

20140211-074939.jpg
Fresh herbs….I can’t wait to walk out my door and cut them for dinner.

20140211-075027.jpg

20140211-075056.jpg
We also started four varieties of peppers. What else, some cabbage, broccoli… The rest will be started directly in the garden come March, weather permitting.

What are your favorite garden goodies? It is hard for me to pick a favorite, but tops are tomatoes and lettuce. Come spring we eat TONS of salads and give away a lot of lettuce and spinach. Unfortunately, the tomatoes don’t come in until after the lettuce is gone. A tomato cucumber salad is common in our house during the summer though.

Here’s hoping to a successful garden this year, last year was horrible. We had asparagus, lettuce and melons but not much of anything else.