2017 Garden Journal

There's just something immensely satisfying about growing your own food. I love walking into the backyard to top off a salad or to have the fridge and countertops bursting with produce.

Honestly, I'm not sure if its about saving money (or time) at all. I mean, I probably save some money with the amount of produce I get. Plus, I get to usually share some. And I'm definitely not saving time because I spend a lot of time planting, weeding, watering, and coaxing those plants along.

We expanded our garden space a little bit from last year. Adam got some timbers and edged out the sides.

Growing a garden doesn't necessarily come naturally for me. Growing weeds, on the other hand - I'm AH-MAZING! I document my gardening efforts so that I can look back next year and be reminded of what went well. And what didn't.

This year's garden included: broccoli, carrots, green beans, zucchini, yellow peppers, grape tomatoes, roma tomatoes, strawberries, yellow squash, lettuce, basil, and sweet corn. Oh, and weeds.

Broccoli did great. 

Carrots aren't quite ready yet, but they are growing. The tops look nice even if I'm not sure what the undersides look like. And I always forget how little the seeds are making them hard to plant and space well. 

Green beans....yum.

Zucchini....rocking my world.

Yellow squash. Ok. 

Yellow peppers. Hopeful that they'll actually turn yellow. But not yet.

Roma tomatoes were very short in stature and then got way too crowded within the cage, causing the leaves to yellow and die. But there's a lot of green ones waiting to ripen. 

Grape tomatoes developed a huge and tall plant. Lots of 'em.

Basil did super well. But I couldn't keep up with using it. And it flowered (which I believe is not good).

Lettuce variety pack. Did great! But we didn't really like it. Too bitter. And super tiny seeds making it hard to plant. (future Becca.....don't plant lettuce again...even if it is because of a free seed packet).

And those weeds. Continual. Persistant. Abundant. Turn-your-back-and they-are-thriving. Hmmm....I wonder if they are edible? (I did get some grass clippings from my brother early on to put around the bases, which helped with keeping some at bay and also helped to retain moisture. Note to Dan: I'd like more grass clippings if there is a 2018 Willis garden.)

And the sweet corn. It was my first attempt at growing it. And the crop has been decimated by a neighborhood varmint that is yet to be determined. I don't know if there's any ears left on the stalks at this point. Its the only thing that was touched in the garden though. I'm pretty sure hunting is not allowed within our city limits, otherwise I would let my hunter husband have his hand at eliminating my corn eater.

And this concludes the Summer 2017 Willis Garden details.