How Does Your {2013} Garden Grow?

 I shared all of our garden planning, planting, and harvesting last year, pretty much from start to finish. {Click those links to see the pictures of last year's garden!} We were blessed with huge bumper crops of everything last year...almost to the point of having no place to put it all! Picture us begging people to take beans off our hands - yup, that really happened. Even our church people were sick of beans!

I'm not going to rehash our entire gardening process this year, since you can just go read about it in the archives, but I thought I'd share a bit of how our garden is doing this year and what is and isn't working in this part of the country. Any other Nova Scotians out there that can relate?

Oh and I should mention that my mom is the main gardener in these parts, so all the beauty of these pictures goes to her. We do help with the planting, weeding, harvesting, and definitely the eating...but she is the mastermind behind the whole shebang.

The first area to show you is our peas....look at those beautiful fences of vines!

If you look up close, the view is even more exciting...

Yep, they are nearly ready! The pods are all grown, and just need to fill out. Just like last year, we use mostly Veseys Seeds in our garden, because we find them to be great quality and work well in this climate! What you see in these pea rows are Dakota, Knight and Sabre.

Here is a shot of some rows of beans, carrots, and weeds...we didn't plant those last ones....

We alternate between a row of beans, and a row of carrots, row of beans, row of carrots, etc. Honestly I'm not sure why...ask my mom. :) Oh, and you may notice if you look at last year's picts...we swap ends of the garden. This year the corn end is where the peas were last year, and visa versa. That is so one area of the garden doesn't get sapped of any one nutrient by planting the same thing there year after year. It seems to work!

Here are beets, radishes, and in the bottom right corner some spinach that has already been cut once.

Here is a shot of the corn...coming along nicely!

We planted three rows of Quickie Corn, three rows of Montauk, and about 8 rows of Bon Appetit. By planting three different kinds, they are not all ready at the same time, so we can enjoy fresh corn on the cob longer!

We also have cukes, squash, pumpkins, and other vine-y things planted, but I'll wait to show you more of those when they are up more. Vine-y things did not do well all over this area this year (too much rain?) and a lot of people had to replant, including us. They seem to be doing well now, however!

Here is a shot of the whole garden:

That is a lot of on-your-knees time, right there!

So let's chat gardens...what have you planted this year? How are things doing in your region? We had so much rain in May and June that a lot of produce that is normally prevalent in our area - like strawberries - aren't doing too well. Do you plant a large garden, or just a small bed? Share below!


Just FYI - Veseys Seeds has no clue who I am, or that I'm writing this post. We use Veseys because us and others have had great results with their seeds for years! Check them out and see if they are available in your area!