Green thumb or not?

This past summer I set out on a new mission to try and see if I had a green thumb or not. Jennifer let me know early on that I was a little ambitious, but I didn't let it stop me. I wanted to try out quite a few different types of vegetables so that I could see how they all grew in order to figure out what worked best for my available space. I am also not a very big vegetable eater, so this was also a way that we could not have to pay for fresh veggies and we could experiment with new recipes. I planted an early crop of spinach that did really well and once it was finished producing I was able to take it out and replant that area which worked out really well. The main plants that I planted this year are as follows: better boy tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, green beans, corn, pumpkins, watermelon, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, okra, eggplant and carrots. Hearing this list you would think that I had about an acre to work with. However, I had to get really creative because I only had a small space in the back yard in which I was allowed my experimental garden.

I started with an indoor green house. The tomato and bell pepper plants are the only ones that I actually got to survive from this starter. Most of the plants got too big and I would have liked to planted outside, but it was still too cold. I guess I just got too anxious to start my gardening adventure.

It finally got warm enough and their wasn't a concern for frost so I got to plant my garden. Just to be on the safe side we did buy a few plants at the store just in case our seeds didn't work out. Since I wasn't able to use all of the seeds in the starter greenhouse I went ahead and put some seeds out too.

Brinley proved to be my little garden helper/destroyer. She enjoyed helping me water the plants but I would have to be very careful because she also like pulling the tiny plants out of the ground.

View of the garden from our back deck. It was so much fun coming outside everyday to see if any new sprouts had come up and then to see how quickly they grew. The 2 pictures were taken about 3-4 weeks apart from each other.

Then the plants started to bloom and it wasn't long before the produce started coming in. I would go out every morning and scour the whole garden to try and find anything to bring in. Each piece of produce seemed like a trophy and I was so excited about each one.

I learned that I am very impatient with vegetables that grow in the ground. We ended up with lots of baby carrots. That's ok because it turns out that we have a couple of rabbits in our house.

Landon enjoying a fresh little carrot out of the garden.

I was super impressed with how tall the corn got. I am standing on the power box in the back yard which is a couple of feet tall. This makes the corn stalks well over 8 foot tall.

It was so nice to be able to get all of this fresh produce right in the backyard.

It was also nice to be able to create meals that were mostly garden to table. Here is carmelized carrots, sauteed okra, and squash 3 ways - grilled, sauteed and casserole.

One of the most productive plants was the cucumber. The bad part was that nobody in our house really likes cucumbers. So, I guess the good news was that I gave them out to family, friends and neighbors. If I do cucumbers again this year I have thought about trying to make them into pickles.

Here is a picture of a haul from the garden in which I was able to get a little bit of everything. The bad news is that this picture was taken in July - not the exact time to be harvesting pumpkins. 

When you also have a bunch of vegetables around the house the only logical thing to do is make a vegetable soup. If you know me at all then you know that I was a very picky eater growing up. At 29 years of age this was actually the first vegetable soup that I can recall eating ever.

When life gives you pumpkins in July - do what comes natural and carve a Jack-o-lantern.

To think that I thought the corn got tall. I just had no idea how tall the okra plants were going to get.

I know that I might be a little crazy, but I wanted to see how much actual vegetables that my first garden actually produced. The only one that wasn't updated before I erased the board was the sweet potatoes - we actually had 30 more for a total of 43. (They were left off because I had them in a box in the basement because they are supposed to cure for about 2-3 weeks for optimal flavor.) 

 Gardening is something that I will continue to do every summer that I am able to. It is so rewarding and you are able to offset some of your grocery bills in the summer with having your own fresh produce. I really hope next year to be able to have enough produce that we are able to start canning in order to have produce well into the winter. We have decided that this year we will probably try to cut down on the types of plants. The ones that we are for sure going to plant are better boy tomatoes, yellow squash, bell peppers, carrots, and green beans. Maybe next year you and your family could start a garden of your own. Thanks for reading and God bless!