THE FRUITS OF MY LABOR                       

What to do with all of those cherry tomatoes?
ROASTED CHERRY TOMATOES is awesome.  A little olive oil, italian seasoning, salt, pepper and the creation is wonderful.  I also tried my hand at roasted green beans.  Hummm, might need a little work on that.  They came out a little chewy, but very tasty.


I did my first canning of tomatoes.  I followed all the rules using a hot bath.  My friends laughed because I was adamant about not "contaminating the field" during the preparation.  I'm not an expert but it was not as bad as I thought.  I encourage anyone to just do it.  You will be surprised at just how easy it is to can.

YES, THAT'S MY FRONT YARD GARDEN!

 
Isn't it beautiful.  This year was awesome.  We did have plenty of rain so I only had to water a few times.  It is now early September.  I only have my tomatoes left and probably will take them out in a few days.  I do have to say that I believe a lot of this is from the "chicken hay" that I use as mulch.  Pretty good stuff.  I'm planning on a fall garden.  We will see how that goes. 

It is July and my garden is exploding.  I have already picked cucumbers, zucchini, and green beans.  I'm waiting for my tomatoes to ripen and for my eggplant to grow a little bigger.  My green peppers are coming along but still need more time.

I have a bumper crop of cucumbers.  I made a delicious cucumber-lemon water and a cool cucumber and red onion salad.  Yum.  Got to go.  Need to find more recipes for cucumbers.

It has been awhile since I have posted anything and a lot has happened since my last post.

I now work at home which will definitely be good for my garden.  Right now, it is late February here in North Carolina.  It has been a really cold, snowy (yes snowy) season and I am just itching to get out and plant.  Hopefully, the weather will improve and my hands will bring forth food.


Last year was interesting.  We had to move the garden from the
 back yard to the front yard.  Our 300 year old oak tree has
over taken the back yard with shade.  But still a great place
for those veggies that do no like a lot of sun.  

My husband made this cute herb bed.  I think it is adorable.

         
                             

  

My front yard garden did great.  It looked quite cute and the neighbors loved it.  Every time someone passed by while I was working the garden, they received fresh veggies.  We had a late summer so tomatoes came in late, but my squash, eggplant, zucchini, and cucumbers did amazingly well.  Look at my first harvest!

Will chat later.  I am dying to check out that new seed catalog.

VeGarden of Life is definitely getting a great start.  We have had a great spring.  I am still a little scared to put in my warm weather seeds.  I know how the North Carolina weather can be.  Low temps in the night do not do well for seed germination if planted to early.  I have found that out by experience. But, all my cool weather plants are doing wonderful.  I think we are a little tired of lettuce.  We eat it all the time and the lettuce still keeps growing and growing.  Oh well, it is good for us. 

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                              WE NOW HAVE EGGS

So far every day this week, only one egg. We hope the other 5
chickens get on board.  Fresh eggs are just awesome and watching the chickens peck around is quite relaxing with a nice cold drink.

Yes, it is a chicken coop.  Chickens will now be added to Ve-Garden of Life.  Not sure what the neighbors will think, but fresh eggs hopefully will change their minds.

Ve-Garden of Life

The start of a new season.  I am no expert, by all means, but I do feel that I am a novice gardener.  This will be my 5th season.  My first season was a small patch with only cucumbers and squash.  We had enough cucumbers and squash to feed an army.  I was somewhat hooked.  The next year, it was bigger and definitely better.  We had so much and so much to give away.  I was definitely hooked.  The next year, well, let's say it was very discouraging.  It was a very hot summer, so I hoped that was the reason.  Then again, last season, things did not do as well as expected.  Having learned a few things, I have new plans for this year and expect a bumper crop. 

I call this blog Ve-Garden of Life because it is a vegetable garden and it does bring me life.  My job is very stressful and life just seems to get me down sometimes.  But when I get out into my garden, life takes on a whole new meaning.  Yes, it is hard work.  But something happens when I get out there and start planting my seeds.  And, it really gets exciting when things start to grow and really, really exciting when you get to pick the fruits of your labor and eat them.  I think, I said think, that I would like to have a CSA garden sometime in the future. Again,  I said, "I think".  Mainly because I know that it needs to be on a much bigger scale that what I have now and it would be my full-time job.  I can always dream and plan.

I am also going to add chickens to my garden this year.  Have I ever raised chickens? Yes and no.  I had some about 30 years ago and did not do very well.  But, I really had no idea what I was doing, did no reseach, so failure was somewhat expected.  Hopefully, since I have done some homework, it will pay off.  So, its fresh veggies and fresh eggs for the everyone this summer.   3/11/12