I've been gone. Now I'm back.

I decided this year I wanted a garden. I've tried to garden in the past. The first I did, it was too close to the house, I just scratched it into the dirt, and got bored with it after a while.

2 years ago I started another garden, in a better position, put some effort into it, but then had to go to a training class for a week, and DH didn't water it. So, I thought it died, and I gave up on it. It didn't end up dieing, but by then the weeds had overtaken everything. It was a huge mess.

1 year ago, I was pregnant, so no garden.

This year, I was tired of coming home from work, feeding DS, and staying in the chair watching TV until late. Boring! I decided to start gardening.

I borrowed a tiller from a friend at work, had DH bring in a truckload of year old poop from the pasture, and tilled it in. Laid it out, bought mostly seeds, some plants, and have really made an effort to do my best out there.

I am very happy with my garden so far. I've been recording everything I've brought in so far:
Radishes for 5 meals
30 baby onions,
2 kohlrabi
‎89 okra and
2 head loose leaf lettuce,
7 eggplant,
29 zucchini,
11 yellow squash,
4 bucket apples
‎6 zuquash,
53 cucumber
‎4 banana peppers,
3 green peppers, and
1 mini still green jalapeno.


I'm not so good with onions. I didn't keep it weeded, then when I tried to weed them, the onions popped out. The okra is going gangbusters, and I shared some of these with the friend I borrowed the tiller from. I planted carrots, and those were a disaster. The radishes came up good, but I forgot to thin them, then the heat made them so hot, they didn't turn out very good.

The apples are from a tree the previous owner's daughter had brought home from school. I have never harvested them, but so far, I've gotten 4 buckets from them. I know it is early for apples, and the first bunch I picked were pretty hard, but I cooked them up into apple butter and have been mixing that up with homemade yogurt for breakfast. Yummy! The latest batch are better, and I think I need to harvest the rest of them because they are starting to get brown spots on them.

The "zuquash" must be some kind of hybrid between the zucchini and the yellow squash, since it is a very pale skinned squash, but when you cut into it, there is a layer of darker green, then the flesh. Tastes like a zucchini.

I figure that I would buy zucchini/squash for $1 a piece at the store, and about the same for cucumbers. Just with that, I have about $100 worth of vegetables out of the garden so far. The okra is doing so much better than I ever thought, and I've made some pretty good meals so far with it.

The lettuce was put in too late to get more than a few of them. I think I'll try a fall garden and put that lettuce back in, since the few I got tasted very good.

I just love going outside, picking something and coming in and cooking it. It is just awesome! But now, since I got 11 zucchini just today, I have to do something with it, so I am trying dehydrating it for the first time. I started it tonight, and since I work at home tomorrow, I'll check it through out the morning. Hopefully, it will taste good with the seasoning I put on it, and it can replace chips for DH...and for me, I guess. I went on a diet and lost 36 pounds to get me back to pre-baby weight from Jan - May 25 (DS's 1 year birthday!), but then I fell of the wagon. I've gained back about 3 pounds because I've been cheating. Time to step it up again!

Glad to be back. I'll fill you in more as the days go along.