...well, not actually growing. not yet. but our little vegetable garden plan is evolving + developing every day! we have a nice rectangle of land about 6 feet by 4 feet, marked off with found wood (see above...it's so sad + empty right now, except for that lavender that somehow survived the winter).
this will be our third year with a backyard garden. + yes, i'm biased, but i think we get better at it every year! kristie helps me with the heavy-duty stuff, and i very happily do the day-to-day maintenance. the first year, i tried to grow practically every kind of vegetable i like -- it didn't work out too well. new england is not the kindest climate + for some reason, a few things just didn't thrive.
the second year i grew fewer types of vegetables, but that meant more room for the things that did well! unfortunately, i had my first garden nemesis last year: a groundhog. that little jerk ate up my zucchini + most of my bush beans! i ended up being able to keep it away by sprinkling cayenne pepper around the edge of my garden, which worked pretty well.
this year should be our best yet! we've narrowed down what we're growing even more to what i know i'm good at keeping alive. i picked veggies that we can easily process + freeze for winter, and those that we love so terribly much (zucchini). i also want to try + put up my own tomato sauce! that will certainly be another adventure. in the meantime, i laid out the garden plan using a list of companion plants. some vegetables get along well when planted near each other + can actually improve growth + taste, and others, well...should be kept at opposite ends of the garden. here's what we've got:
lots of tomatoes for sauce (yes, i picked these because of the name!), basil for pesto, beans, peppers + carrots for freezing, and zucchini for everything (seriously...falafel, chocolate chip cookies, sautee, bread, literally everything). we're ordering our seeds from johnny's selected seeds, where we get them every year. they're an employee-owned, (fairly) local company that has an awesome selection of organic + heirloom seeds, many of which are bred to withstand new england climes.
we've only ever grown vegetables, but this year i'm adding flowers, too, so i'll be able to cross that off this list! someday i'd like very much to try growing roses, but for the time being i picked iceland meadow poppies + china asters, just because they're pretty. we'll see how they fare!
what's in your garden? have you tried companion planting?
*this is NOT a sponsored post
