This year we planted a small garden in the back yard. It measures 12' x 30' and this is photo is from our second day of putting in our seedlings. Papa is currently in the process of putting a fence around it to keep out bunnies and yesterday I mulched it all with hay to cut back on our need to water. The last 3+ summers we've had drought conditions so we positioned our garden to get morning sun (~7a-11a), be shaded by a tree for the hottest part of the day (~11:30a-2p), and then get afternoon sun until sunset. Hopefully this will prevent scorching and lessen our need to water. We have two rain barrels set up and are looking at getting a few more, so hopefully that will take care of our watering needs. This year we planted 18 tomato plants (12 heirloom Cherokee Purple and 6 Roma), 12 bell peppers (6 red, 6 yellow), 6 crook neck squash, 5 zucchini (Baby got to one seedling!), cabbage, Blue lake green beans, pole beans, cucumbers, onions, potatoes, and watermelon. We've also got a small herb garden going and some wild blackberries on our land that I'm hoping to make preserves out of. Ideally I'll be able to can quite a few things out of our garden, I'm really looking forward to having fresh produce and then putting some food by. We'll be saving seeds from this year to plant next year, and hopefully expanding next year to include more of each plant as well as some corn, collards and turnips. We garden for two reasons, firstly being because we enjoy having the fresh food and the security that comes with it, and the second reason being that in the event of a disruption in the food chain we'll be better prepared to handle it. Do you have a garden? Tell me about it in the comments!
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