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Join the Seasonal Club.
Ditch the processed life! Learn to grow, source, preserve, and prepare real foods ALL YEAR LONG!  LEARN MORE >>

Sneak Peak: This Year’s Garden Experiment

Garden Seeds 2013

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Garden Seeds 2013
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Newly liberated from The Suburbs, our first few gardening seasons out in the country in Northern Virginia were met with a great deal of ambition.  Perhaps a bit too much ambition.

With the newly acquired extra acreage–three, to be exact, which is not much by some standards, but feels like Quite A Lot after living in the ‘Burbs for years on end–we decided to plant a Huge Vegetable Garden.

[Read more about our big move: The Red Hutch: God’s Grace and Backdoor Clutter and Singing in the Shadow of His Wings: Truths to Cling to During Trial and Tragedy.]

2010 Garden Prep
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Mr. Native Texan and Older Brother (3) preparing the Huge Vegetable Garden in 2010, our first growing season in Northern VA.

Planting seeds in the Huge Vegetable Garden.

The Huge Country Garden seemed like a no brainer until we realized how much work is involved in weeding and tending so much space.  {Yikes!}

And then last year, an invincible army of squash bugs decimated our entire crop of zucchini and pumpkins, along with some melons.  Grrrrr.  (Thankfully, between our bumper zucchini crop from the previous year’s garden and a few zucchini gifts from some kind-hearted neighbors, we’ve enjoyed zucchini from the freezer all year long.)

Zucchini, Ready for the Freezer
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Shredded zucchini, ready for the freezer (and labeled by my pint-sized assistant).

For this year’s garden, after a bit of research which began during the Squash Decimation of 2012, we decided to make a few changes.  Two of them are sort of major, and we’re hoping they will pay off with better crops and less back-breaking labor throughout the growing season.

Square Foot Gardening book
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A sneak peak at one of the big changes we’re implementing in this year’s garden.

Mother’s Day Weekend marks the beginning of the outdoor gardening season here in our neck of the woods, so this Saturday (tomorrow!) is the big day for planting vegetable seeds and seedlings.  Mr. Native Texan has been working hard to prepare the space for our veggies, herbs and tomatoes (which are technically a fruit, right?).

So, here’s to better gardening days ahead!  Stay tuned over the next few weeks and months to watch our garden in progress…

[Update: Here’s the next post, which describes our first major setback: This Year’s Garden Experiment, Take Two]

 

 

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Kathleen | Roots & Boots

Let's get real! I’m Kathleen Henderson, your Natural Living Mentor. I’m on a mission to help families see the joy in real food, while finding natural remedies and creating a nontoxic home. Learn more about my story >>

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