Garden 2018

This is a little behind, but I am just catching up on my blog posts. Here are some pictures about our garden and everything that we made with the produce that we got out of the garden. It makes me really excited about getting the garden set up and ready to eat some more fresh veggies. 

First produce coming out of the garden this year was green and yellow zucchini and a squash. 

It still amazes me that just a few short weeks before this all these plants were just seeds. With just some water, sunlight, and patience. 

We took the kids on our vacation out west and when we got home we had these ginormous zucchini out in the garden. 

I used a couple of the smaller zucchini to make my first batch of zucchini bread.

We were over run with zucchini and squash.

Some of my co-workers benefited from the extra amount of zucchini. I made a double batch and brought them into work to share.

These were my only jars of pickles that I was able to make this year. I learned a very valuable lesson this year in the garden. When we came back from our vacation the vines from all of the cucumbers were going out into the garden instead of up the fence like I was hoping they would. The mistake that I made was that I thought that I could re position them. Unfortunately, the vines didn't appreciate me moving them and they all died. I tried replanting them, but with no success.

Jennifer picked up a spiralizer at the store. It is a very simple way to turn vegetables into a noodle replacement for all those trying to go low carb. Throw some spaghetti sauce on them and you won't really miss the real noodles at all.

First tomatoes of the season. I grew these grape tomatoes just for Brinley, who is the only one in the house that likes them. We also got our first bell pepper too!

These guys love coming out and "helping" me in the garden. They are really good at pouring excess amounts of water on plants and walking inside the garden and trying to avoid stepping on my little plants.

First of the tomatoes coming in. Now just to have enough so that we can start to get some made into something.

 

Turned a couple of green tomatoes and zucchini into an unhealthy, but delicious dinner one night.

We love salsa in this house. That is what the majority of our tomatoes turn into.

So glad that I picked up canning a few years ago. It is so easy and it allows you to taste your home grown veggies all year long.

We didn't grow these peaches, but I picked them up at the peach truck when it came to town. There were over 40 peaches that we bought. We figured that instead of letting them go bad we would can some. Brinley loves them!

Our homemade peach cobbler turned out pretty good too!

There is nothing like a fresh home grown tomato.

Sometimes I would have to pick for a couple of days and wait for them to ripen in between days that I worked. When I would get enough ripe I would then get to canning.

My usually extremely tall sunflowers struggled a bit this year and only made it to about 8 foot tall this year. 

They are still beautiful though. 

Carrots were also a bit of a dud this year too! The kids don't seem as excited about these anymore, so I may not plant them next year.

One of our last hauls from the garden. It included a mix of all kinds of veggies: carrots, tomatoes, okra, and bell peppers.

A couple more jars of tomato juice and then we also had some leftover apples so we decided to turn them into some canned apple pie filling. So, next time we are in a mood for some apple pie we just need to throw some of this into a pie crust.

Our pantry was full with all kinds of stuff. Even as I write this we still have plenty of jars left for us to enjoy.  The kids especially love the salsa. Landon loves the hot and Brinley prefers the mild. 

The garden has been such an awesome investment of my time and energy. Not only do I get the privilege of providing for my family, but I also get to know that my family is eating healthy and fresh vegetables. I think this year I will most likely cut back on the types of things that I grow and just do more of the things that I know my family enjoys. I believe that I will do zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, and sunflowers. Thanks for reading and God bless!