I really didn't think that I'd be able to have a garden this year because by the time I healed enough for the cardiologist to OK me to work in it, it would be too late to plant, I had all but given up. But Diana, her Dad and her Brother worked their behinds off Memorial Day and tilled up not only my raised beds, but my canning tomato bed too. They also planted 72 tomato plants in the canning bed that day.
Last weekend Diana's Dad came back over and helped us plant another 24 tomato plants in the canning bed for a total of 96 plants and another 24 tomato plants of assorted varieties in my raised beds for our table and to share with neighbors and family.
After that we planted 24 sweet pepper plants, 24 hot pepper plants, 8 broccoli, 8 cabbage, 12 brussels sprouts, 4 tomatillo, 3 honeydew and 3 cantaloupe plants as well as cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, green bean, cilantro and dill seeds. I got to help by dropping the plants in the holes and dropping the seeds in rows. It don't sound like much but it tuckered me out. Poor Diana did all the hard work of raking all the beds level and wheelbarrowing loads of leaf mulch to pack around the plants and she paid for it by being sore for the next 3 days.
I sure am thankful for my wife and inlaws who knew how much I would miss having all the fresh vegetables right out in the back yard this summer. Diana and I eat from it constantly as soon as things start ripening. Can't wait for the first fresh grilled fajitas using home grown red, yellow and orange bell peppers as well as jalapeņos, tomatoes, tomatillos and cilantro.
A few years back I realized that some day gardening would get harder for me the older I got so I decided to get my garden off ground level where I had to stoop and kneel and build some raised beds. I designed and built 16 raised beds that are the height of a kitchen chair and have benches running down both sides of them. I laid out the paths between them so that I can get my riding mower with a trailer attached to at least one side of each bed and the rest of the paths are the width of a push mower and I can get wheelbarrows and my wagon down them. I use cattle panels with PVC pipe frames for trellises that I can easily move from bed to bed to rotate crops and have plans drawn up to lay and bury water lines to each bed that will be run on timers so I can go on vacation and not have to have someone to water them.
I didn't take any pics this year yet because none of the seeds have even sprouted and all the plants are babies, but to give you an idea what my garden looks like when it's growing gangbusters, I'll post some pics I took a couple years ago.
Here's what a bed looks like:
Sweet pepper bed in front with a cuke bed behind:
Winter squash and broccoli beds:
Tomato bed with volunteer Mystery squash:
2 zuke beds with tomato beds in the background:
Asparagus beans, cilantro and dill bed:
Right half of the garden:
Left half of the garden:
Garden seen from on top of a ladder:
Canning tomato bed:
Last weekend Diana's Dad came back over and helped us plant another 24 tomato plants in the canning bed for a total of 96 plants and another 24 tomato plants of assorted varieties in my raised beds for our table and to share with neighbors and family.
After that we planted 24 sweet pepper plants, 24 hot pepper plants, 8 broccoli, 8 cabbage, 12 brussels sprouts, 4 tomatillo, 3 honeydew and 3 cantaloupe plants as well as cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, green bean, cilantro and dill seeds. I got to help by dropping the plants in the holes and dropping the seeds in rows. It don't sound like much but it tuckered me out. Poor Diana did all the hard work of raking all the beds level and wheelbarrowing loads of leaf mulch to pack around the plants and she paid for it by being sore for the next 3 days.
I sure am thankful for my wife and inlaws who knew how much I would miss having all the fresh vegetables right out in the back yard this summer. Diana and I eat from it constantly as soon as things start ripening. Can't wait for the first fresh grilled fajitas using home grown red, yellow and orange bell peppers as well as jalapeņos, tomatoes, tomatillos and cilantro.
A few years back I realized that some day gardening would get harder for me the older I got so I decided to get my garden off ground level where I had to stoop and kneel and build some raised beds. I designed and built 16 raised beds that are the height of a kitchen chair and have benches running down both sides of them. I laid out the paths between them so that I can get my riding mower with a trailer attached to at least one side of each bed and the rest of the paths are the width of a push mower and I can get wheelbarrows and my wagon down them. I use cattle panels with PVC pipe frames for trellises that I can easily move from bed to bed to rotate crops and have plans drawn up to lay and bury water lines to each bed that will be run on timers so I can go on vacation and not have to have someone to water them.
I didn't take any pics this year yet because none of the seeds have even sprouted and all the plants are babies, but to give you an idea what my garden looks like when it's growing gangbusters, I'll post some pics I took a couple years ago.
Here's what a bed looks like:
Sweet pepper bed in front with a cuke bed behind:
Winter squash and broccoli beds:
Tomato bed with volunteer Mystery squash:
2 zuke beds with tomato beds in the background:
Asparagus beans, cilantro and dill bed:
Right half of the garden:
Left half of the garden:
Garden seen from on top of a ladder:
Canning tomato bed:
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