We have big plans for the gardens this year! In fact, we are adding a 30′ x 24′ garden on our back acreage, expanding our current garden by about double, and fencing in the backyard. All of these things seemed like great ideas when the snow was 5 feet deep, but now the work has started and it seems like a lot. Anyways, I wanted to share what we are working on before I get too busy to update. I have a feeling this summer is about to get away from us.

First, I’ll start with our current garden. We found that we are eating food out of our garden so fast, that we haven’t been able to preserve as much as we would like. With 3 boys eating us out of house and home, we need to put more aside to save the grocery bill. The garden by the house is going to be where we grow the bulk of the food we eat fresh. It will have beans, tomatoes, squash, peppers, herbs, and a whole lot more. We have already doubled the size of this garden this spring and installed part of the vinyl fence that will enclose the backyard.

There are a few things that grew great last year that I knew I needed to plant this year. I’ve been buying the bulk of my seeds from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com). They sell heirloom, non GMO seeds and have a great variety. (This isn’t sponsored, I just love their seeds.) Last year I had great success from German red tomatoes (with some beautiful petite marigolds to prevent pest issues), Kentucky wonder pole beans, blue lake bush beans, buttercrunch lettuce, and arikara sunflowers (that grew 12 feet tall).

I’m also really excited for some new varieties I’ve never grown before. My goal was to add some color and interesting things that the kids would be excited to eat. The kids are most excited about snake beans, Cherokee long ear corn (for popcorn), corbaci peppers, and strawberry spinach (with edible berries and leaves). I’m excited for the purple podded beans, noodle beans, peas, pink ponderosa tomatoes, atomic grape tomatoes, and some melons. I will update at the end of the year when I know how they did!

We are also growing onions, radishes, carrots, zucchini, squash, spinach, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and 4 other varieties of peppers in the main garden.

The garden out in the field hasn’t been planted yet, so I’m not sure if we will get a good harvest out of it. The fence will go up this and then we can plant. It will have pumpkins, melons, sweet corn, sunflowers, onions, turnips, and some leftover plants from the greenhouse. Next year the field will have a much better start by this time because we won’t be doing so much building and fencing. We are excited about our ever-expanding homestead!

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