Garden Renovation- BIGGER and BETTER than EVER!

HEY!  We've expanded the garden this year- and with all the vacations we've been on, we've hardly had a moment to post about all the fantastic things happening in our garden this year.  These photos were taken in June.  I had Jack Rasmussen (our landscaper) come and till up ground on either side of my garden so we could expand it for things that need a lot of room to grow- like corn and squash and other things.  I have a dream to one day preserve enough garden produce to feed our family an entire year until it's time for the next garden harvest.  With big dreams, we needed more growing space.

It took a lot of sweat and money to form the dirt into mounds and rows the way we wanted them, and to bring the sprinkler drip lines to everything, but we did it, and we got the garden fully planted before mid-June, so hopefully that's still enough time for everything to mature.

We decided to plant an entire bed of carrots this year, since they keep so well and for so long, and we use them a lot in soups, stews, etc.  The sprouts were on their way up in June.

The walking onions Brother Taylor gave to us last year have already begun to walk!  These are so fun, and they remind me of my pioneer ancestors, just because you can see one generation grow up and raise the next generation which plants itself and starts another generation.  Love it!

Our spinach and peas did beautifully in June.

Our spring garden bed has been feeding us for a few months already, as we planted radishes, and got to harvest chives and chive flowers and garlic scapes.  Our lettuce was good too.  I pulled it before June, when the heads were still little, soaked the baby leaves in cold water in the fridge for a day, and any bitterness they had was gone.  Just yummy lettuce!  That opened up space for me to plant the beets for our fall harvest.

We have 14 tomato plants this year we raised from seed- 7 different varieties as follows: Brandywine Heirloom, Rutger, Romas, Baby Romas, Italian Determinate, Yellow Pear, and Purple Grape Heirloom.  I see salsa, cans of tomatoes, and spaghetti sauce in our future.

We planted twice the amount of cabbage this year, since that is one veggie Tame Dame #2 really wanted plenty of.  We raised 2 varieties- Golden Acre and Flat Dutch.

Our strawberry bed was neglected and is really over crowded and weedy.  We only got a few strawberries from it.

The squash we raised got put into the new squash section of our garden which boasts 8 hills devoted to the curbit family.  We have sweet meat squash, zucchini, snake or swan gourds, butternut, watermelon, and 3 types of cucumbers.

 Here's what it all looked like in June.