The Vegetable Garden

April 2008 - the beginning of the vegetable garden:

This spot was previously a pretty small garden that did not appear to get a lot of attention – at least in the last year before we bought the house. Additionally, there were several large tree limbs that did not allow hours of lovely sunlight. We had several limbs taken down … moved a flowering shrub … and had to take down a holly tree (sad, but the tree was not happy in spite of being in the way of the new garden).

We love vegetables ... seeing as how I am a vegetarian and my husband is pretty darn close, this is not really shocking. Our garden measures approximately 16 feet by 20 feet … that is 320 sq. ft. – larger than some bedrooms (not to mention some houses). And this does not include the asparagus plot. My husband John did a lot of reading about sustainable gardening and creating mini ecosystems without pesticides and herbicides, etc. He agonized (slightly) about what plants would go where and how many of each to buy.

May 2008 - after the little plants and some seeds were placed in the ground:

In our desire to be more eco-friendly, no chemical-laden fertilizers were used on the garden. John added some commercially available organic compost, organic plant-tone, humus, sphagnum moss, bone & blood meal. We were a bit lucky with the startup since John was able to bring a pick-up truck load of soil from the established garden at his old house. Most of the plants were purchased at Rutgers Gardens' annual plant/flower sale so they are organically raised. We also ordered some organic seeds online from Seeds of Change. So far, John says the real key to the garden was “double digging”.

July 2008 - the garden is like a jungle (the tomato plant in the foreground is over 5 feet tall!!):

We've been picking basil for weeks and green beans for about a week. Everything tastes so yummy! We've got pesto in the freezer from the basil harvest for approximately 8 lbs of pasta ... and it is only July!

Our first tomato was picked today - and it tasted amazing! We even compared it to a store-bought, on the vine, organic tomato. Ours was the clear winner for taste and “meatiness”.

We are looking forward to future harvests of organic tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, squash, tomatillos, carrots, green beans, peanuts, basil and parsley. Oh and of course asparagus in a year or two. Yay for gardens!!