How Does Your Garden Grow?

This weekend, I planted my garden. Eight tomato plants, a bunch of green beans, and a bunch of cucumbers. Three years ago, the Hubster constructed a raised-bed garden frame for me (I 'managed' the project). I found some flexible dog-run fencing to put on top, and voila – Kathleen's garden.

Kathleen's Garden

That year I did surprisingly well. I say 'surprisingly' because I can kill pretty much anything, but this one seems foolproof. The plans and soil recipe I got from the Book entitled Square Foot Gardening , but the wiki entry has a lot of the basic information, too.

Before I had planted six tomato plants, three vines of green beans, some peppers and six cucumber plants. The tomatoes did great, but we can eat a LOT of tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes are awesome compared to the flavor-less store bought tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes actually have taste. The beans were great as well, but I sowed a lot more green bean seeds this time. Each vine yielded about a dozen beans, which would be great if I were a hamster instead of a family of four. Hopefully, the extra vines will do the trick.

There is one plant that has survived all three years. The Chives. Chives are apparently indestructible. I did not water the chives, nor cover them in winter, but we've had fresh chives ten months out of the year. Chives are apparently the Terminator 3 of the plant world. I highly recommend them to a novice.

On the side of the house, we have raspberries and two apple trees. We planted the apple trees four years ago, are finally getting blossoms on the smaller tree. Not sure if the taller tree will ever bloom, but I read that apple trees take a long time to get started, so we will be patient. The raspberries are doing great. Last year we yielded about two baskets full of berries, but my family could eat a lot of raspberries. We should plant more canes, I think. Raspberries are not cheap.

This time I'm hopeful about my crops. Groceries are really getting expensive, and I hate that it's the fresh produce and fruit that is so pricey. I'll report back later in the year and see if this year's bounty was thick or thin.

So what about y'all? I know we have a few gardeners out there. Who's growing what this year? Are there any plants that you wish you could grow?