As many of you know, we love food. No really, we looooove food. The fresher, the cleaner, the better. And it doesn’t get much better than picked from your own garden. Now, I am the luckiest girl because well, I get to do the “fun” jobs when it comes to our garden. I get to pick most of our seeds, I get to transplant little plantlings into the ground, I get to pick the ripened fruit, and best of all, I get to be creative with how we cook the food! DW spoils me and does all of the hard labour and the annoying tasks like turning soil, hand picking bugs and pests (organic gardening), constantly watering and weeding, as well as general maintenance of the plants (staking them, tying them up, pruning, etc.). She spends hours everyday working in her garden, so today, I decided that I’d do a little photo feature on my wife’s hard earned garden.
We’ve been gardening for over five years now, and every year we make improvements to our systems and structures. One year we connected rain barrels to the awning over our patio, another year we added a pear tree and cut down a small maple tree, another year we added raised beds, another year DW constructed a trellis for our vining plants to climb. We’re into being efficient and environmentally friendly, so when we learn new things, we make changes to how we operate our little garden.
These are two out of our eight sweet pepper plants, just starting to fruit:
We succession plant cilantro because we use it so much in our cooking, and these are just starting:
Two kinds of basil: sweet basil (front) and Thai basil (behind):
The snow pea and snap pea bed:
Juno and Clem’s chew stick pile, which DW is constantly tidying up:
Raised carrot bed (with random other things like cilantro and beets that were dug up and moved there by squirrels):
Purple beans (on fence) and succession planted green beans (and a little Clementine):
Swiss chard and lettuce bed:
Swiss chard, gai lan, and some other random stuff we allowed to go to seed:
Beet and green onion bed:
Plants in containers, and our sad pear tree, which was destroyed in the ice storm of 2013/2014:
Sweet pepper:
Cayenne peppers:
Black beauty and Asian long eggplant:
Zucchini patch:
Can you spot the two zucchinis?
Rhubarb, potatoes, and Jerusalem artichokes:
Acorn squash trellis (avec lacinato kale, lettuce, leeks, and wild asparagus) and the farmer herself:
Look at the size of those acorn squash leaves!
The bottom bed of tomatoes, potatoes, short curly green and lacinato kale, and a front row of leeks:
Butternut squash climbing another trellis over the shed, and the compost bin that houses Clem’s pet snake, Slitherin:
A whole whack of dill and asparagus going to seed:
Yummy
Thanks! I agree š
I. Am. In. Awe.
Me too!!
Aww thanks š
Aww thanks. I’ll be sure to let her know.
Impressive!! Someday I hope to have a garden, probably won’t make it to your scale though!
Thank you š Gardening is so wonderful, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. It doesn’t have to be huge or super labour intensive either. We’re just frugal, so we do most of the hard stuff ourselves (like starting plants from seed and making our own compost).
That’s really awesome! My dad goes all out too, I’m looking forward to some home grown food on our trip back East next week!
Awesome! Enjoy your trip!
That is just an amazing garden! I am so jealous and also inspired. š
Thank you! I’ll pass on your compliments to my wife!
I am SO impressed! I need gardening tutorials from J, please!
Lol. She’s really great with helping people and giving advice on gardening too. My mom sometimes calls me just to ask J a gardening question haha. We’re happy to help you with your next year’s garden!
I used to think my Gma had an amazing garden but you just blew her out of the water. So delicious!
Awww what a huge compliment! Thank you š
Your garden is amazing!! It sounds like your DW and my DH have the same jobs and you and I enjoy the fun part. I think we’ve got it good! š
Also, why do you have chicken wire under your peppers??
We sure do have it good! The chicken wire is to deter squirrels from digging into the soil and ripping our plants out or burying other things there lol.
Oh, we don’t have that problem. So, its not something we (sorry, I should just say Mr. MPB) need to add next year. š
Gorgeous!
I’m in complete awe. Can I please borrow you two to fix our garden. I can’t even this is insane!!
Haha thanks!
Yum! Can I come produce shopping in your yard?! It all looks SOOO good!
Thanks Allison! One day you, Jenn, and the kids will have to come to the ‘burbs for a BBQ or something.
Oh I am so envious!!! What a beautiful garden!
Thank you!
This is awesome!!
Your garden is INCREDIBLE! But I have to admit, you almost lost me at “pet snake!” WHAT!?! And I might have to pay you guys to come to NY and start our garden for us when we buy a hone
Lol. Yeah the pet snake is an inside joke. There was/is a snake that used to live in there, and we joked that it was Clem’s pet snake because she kept going to that compost bin to sniff at it.
SUPER impressive!! I can’t even keep a plant from Ikea alive š¦ How hard is it to grow peppers? I ask because you can’t find jalepenos here! Might have to try and grow our own some time! And those Asian long eggplant are so pretty!
Thanks! How hot does it get in Switzerland? Peppers need hot hot temps and lots of sun.
Well this year, pretty hot! You never know what you’re going to get though. Maybe that’s why they are a rare find here. Plus Swiss people generally don’t like spicy food, boo!
Interesting. What is a typical Swiss meal?
Fondue, sausage and rosti (potatoes) perch fillets and fries, pasta, or pizza, carpaccio… That’s pretty much the menu anywhere!
well crap, I was looking forward to my
Blog about my first garden until I seen this! Your wife totally dominated at gardening. I’m envious. I made lots of mistakes my first year, I yielded an average amount for California but damn yours really took the trophy. Good job ladies!!!!
Wowzer guys!! Now I know where to go when the apocalypse starts.
Haha, that’s what our friends have said too. Sadly, gardening season only lasts until the end of September here. Then it gets cold and things die off.
oh dear, hopefully we’ll have a summer apocalypse then š
Lol. For lots of reasons. Canada is COLD in the winter, and we’d all freeze to death!
I loved this post. Your wife has an AMAZING green thumb. I would love to have a garden that lush and utilitarian but still very beautiful. I love the rain barrels – been thinking of setting some up for a year or so. I’m really inspired. What’s your ratio for bought v. home grown produce 80/20 or even less?