My Own Garden

It was a goal of mine to grow some of my own veggies and herbs to cook with during the summer season. When we lived in Minnesota we didn’t really have a yard to do it in and very little area for pots. Once we moved to Oklahoma I had a little more freedom to plant. It is important to be to enjoy time out of the office and away from my computer. Taking care of a garden, watching it grow, and using what I get to cook in the kitchen is a great feeling. It is something my husband and I both enjoy. The smell of simmering tomatoes with basil and oregano, dipping your tortilla chip into fresh made salsa with cilantro, tomatoes, and jalepeno, or sipping an ice cold mojito (I just might have to make one after this post!).

This is my first garden! When we first moved to Oklahoma I asked if I could have a garden in our yard on base. The answer was yes, however, it had to be a raised garden and needed to be removed when it came time to leave Vance AFB. I was very excited to have a long summer of veggies, flowers, and herbs. The hard thing was I couldn’t plant until we moved since I didn’t want to plant and then uproot everything (we moved to a renovated house) and I was gone half of April and all of May. So I missed the early planting season and didn’t get going until June. Since we only have a year at Vance AFB we decided to do a potted garden. We shopped for all our plants at the local nursery and were able to get everything there for free with the help of a gift card for military members on base. We also got some more of the basics at Lowe’s where we found containers to be a bit expensive. The cedar containers Matt ended up making at the wood shop. Our back patio now smells like a sauna.

So here are some images of our first garden.

Fresh herbs that I have already started cooking with!

Mint … can you taste the Mojito yet? MMM! I already made a pitcher last weekend!

Cherry tomatoes!! Our first one! And Matt’s jalepeno’s for salsa!

Roma tomatoes work well for just about anything so we have lots of those!

I can’t wait to see what actually grows. So far most of the plants have either doubled or tripled in size and some are producing fruit! I think our only problem is giving the tomatoes enough room to grow. We might have to separate them if they don’t start showing flowers. This is my first attempt at a ‘real’ garden so I shouldn’t feel too discouraged if we don’t get much. There is always next year!