Summer Garden

I’m so happy to have a summer garden this year! I haven’t had a true garden (other than some herbs and flowers) for several years because I haven’t been able to get it planted early enough. We live in the Deep South, and it has to be started in very early spring so it will be well established before the heat of summer hits. My husband and son built me some new cedar boxes back in March and filled them with soil, ready for me to plant, grow, and harvest to my heart’s content. I planted everything (some seed, some plants) on April 1st and now I’m enjoying some homegrown veggies and herbs.

My husband expanded the gated area on the side of our house to allow for more garden space while keeping the dogs out. Unfortunately, we had our septic tank to work around and had to abandon our originally planned layout to leave access. But the space we ended up with is still wonderful and I’m very thankful. It runs down the whole side of our yard.

Below is a view of the original area that we had previously fenced off a couple of years ago. Here I planted a tea bed and herb bed and my daughter planted flowers and strawberries.

My tea bed includes different plants that can be used in hot tea: a tea tree, lavender, sweet mint, peppermint, spearmint, stevia, chamomile, and bee balm. You’ll see some other flowers and lamb’s ear which are obviously not for tea but served as pretty fillers until everything else filled in. Below is an earlier photo but this box is really full now. I’m still on the lookout for pineapple mint which I had several years ago but can no longer find.

I love herbs and keep them every year if I grow nothing else. My herb box contains basil, Thai basil, Mexican tarragon, dill, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, rosemary, oregano, German thyme, English thyme, lemon thyme, sage, and chives. To see how I dry my herbs, check out this post.

My girl and I love zinnias and they grow so easily, so this was a must! She started this box with seed, and it’s been so delightful to watch the colors burst more and more each day.

I planted some more around our ugly gas tank to try and pretty it up.

The strawberries never really thrived and are now pretty much dead. We didn’t plant them in their true season and what few strawberries we had, the birds snatched up first.

But the sunflowers my daughter planted are pretty happy!

Next is our cucumber box. I planted some regular cucumbers for pickling and also planted lemon cucumbers. Have you heard of them? They have the taste and texture of a regular cucumber but are round and yellow like lemons. So cheery for summer salads! Scroll down to see a pic.

In the tomato bed I have Better Boy, Vintage Wine, and cherry tomatoes. Ahh, those Better Boys are soooo delicious on a sandwich!

The Vintage Wine tomatoes are a little slow coming in but there are a lot of baby ones now. They are beautiful tomatoes when they are ripe. Look them up!

And my last box is for zucchini and yellow squash.

In between each raised bed we have a potted bell pepper plant–four total in yellow, red, orange, and green.

And my son chose to grow his own hot peppers this year! Jalapeno, chili, and red ghost. That last one scares me a bit but it’s a total 13-yr-old guy thing to find the hottest pepper out there. This photo is from a couple of weeks ago but there are so many peppers on all 3 plants now.

My daughter also planted watermelons and cantaloupe out beyond our fenced area, and we have two new peach trees this year that the deer think are there for their munching. They also wiped out what few blueberries we had. I’ll share what I’m doing about that in another post.

My husband and son worked so hard building the boxes and the fence, and my daughter and I have put in the hours since then to plant, water, and weed. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the most important work done with this year’s garden which is that of the kitties who faithfully keep watch from sunup to sundown. Garden watching is no joke, y’all! There are birds, bees, butterflies, and lizards that move around in there all day and need constant monitoring and Pumpkin and Floyd take this job very seriously!

Hope you enjoyed this little garden tour today. It’s not big, but it’s what I feel like I can reasonably manage this year, and maybe I’ll gradually add a little more each year. We’ll see. For now, I’m thoroughly enjoying having my hands in the dirt and I’m learning a lot along the way!