I thought it was time to give you an update on the garden... it went a little wild while we were gone on our road trip. I came home to kale leaves the size of Texas! unfortunately since I wasn't home to keep track of things they were over run with bugs, so off they all went! BUT I planted more... I heard that kale can almost grow in the winter so I am going to test out that theory!
My carrots (above) grew like mutants! all of them had three or four legs, not one of my carrots looked like a real carrot... but they TASTED good! The kids loved them with a dip made of plain yogurt and a little creamy salad dressing mixed together (mostly yogurt). We all got a kick out of pulling them out of the ground to find these huge jumbles of carrots! I think that the leeks were the best, for some reason about 50% of my garden was leeks.. oops! But it's great, they are the perfect addition to just about anything, so they really came in handy. Next week I will pull up my beets and let you know what happened, but they look like they are the size of grapefruits!
The "compost tomatoes", if you remember I just used my compost soil (we don't take the seeds out of anything) in a few areas and the result were some terrific tomato plants and two squash plants (but they didn't make it.. eaten by bugs). We have a really nice variety of tomatoes and most of all I love their scent!
Herbs were my last planting and I just finished off my flower pots with herbs, I would say that the most handy was parsley, it's so nutritious and I added it to just about everything I cooked, the kids really loved it (or at least no complaints) and I really feel like it adds to each meal! Having the herbs on hand is great, you can always make in impromptu meal using the recipes I have given you in previous posts for pasta and potato salad.
I feel much more comfortable about doing a larger garden next year, it didn't take much work after I put it in and I did realize that you continue to plant throughout the summer. So once I took something out I fixed up the soil by adding some new soil and then planted some more seeds... there is really no need for a very large garden (unless you are a huge fan of squash like I am, I really missed not being able to grow them this year and I can't wait to try again next year.. I even found the perfect spot!). For our small family of four, the size of our garden worked perfectly (only about 48 square feet).
I hope that this inspires you to make your own garden next year, I am by no means a green thumb and it was very easy and fun to take care of and the kids really loved helping out!