Gardening Time Again

Joe and I both grew up in the country, me in Mississippi and Joe in Virginia, so we know how good fresh veggies are.  

For the last few years we have only had a small garden behind our house, usually a few peppers, some tomatoes, lettuce, and herbs. We wanted to do more but just didn't have space for a large garden.  Last year we were lucky in that our neighbor across the street asked if we wanted to take over her garden.  Her husband had passed away and her children weren't interested in gardening or didn't have time for it.  We eagerly said yes that we would love to use her garden space and would gladly share our veggies with her.  We planted corn,  tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, okra, beans, peas,  watermelons, pumpkins, mustard greens, Swiss chard, broccoli, and cantaloupes.  You can see the mustard greens just starting to come up.  (we have since picked them twice)

Last year we had problems with rabbits and squirrels.  I remembered that my parents used to put pie pans out to scare animals.  So far it seems to have worked, we have had very few critter problems. 

Our beans are looking good, they have grown a lot since this photo was taken.  We actually picked a few tonight.  There are lots of small beans, I know what I will be doing on Monday, canning beans.

Our broccoli has been incredible, we have had lots of roasted broccoli this year.  I have never been a huge broccoli fan, but love it roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Cleaning before roasting.

This is our small garden behind our house.  We have a rogue pumpkin that came up that is about to take over.

Swiss chard, love this sauteed with olive oil, red pepper, garlic, salt and pepper.