When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:10
We just celebrated another Earth Day! In honor of Mother Nature, we would love to take you ‘round our garden and to share with you our setup. We will break down what materials we used, why we chose the plants we did and other details in the next blog post. But for now, welcome to our Eden.
We have a driveway that leads to our garage behind ou r house. This feature provided for an easy split of yard on either side. To the right, we have a larger green and this is where our kiddos play and we can relax on the patio. To the left, is a leaner patch of green where we felt a row of garden boxes and eventually our greenhouse would fit perfectly. When we step out of our home and into our victory garden, we can’t help but smile at our accomplishments.
Arthur has a true gift. He’s able to replicate almost anything he sees through wood-working. We initially started with a couple garden boxes from our local hardware store, but quickly discovered that for our climate, we would need something a little more custom. Raised garden beds would be key and the work of making these by hand would be worth it. Our garden alley is a current collection of nine built-by-hand raised garden beds. Each one is a vessel for the varieties of plants we are growing, and there is a rhyme and reason to each one. More on that later in part II.
Left to right, we are growing…fruits of blueberries & strawberries, cucurbits & squash like cucumber & zucchini as well as green beans, Boston Bibb lettuce, carrots & sweet peas, dillweed & bell peppers, a flower box of celosia, zinnias and lilies, herbs like thyme, basil as well as tomatoes, potato vines, chamomile & jalapenos.
We are also growing countless other herbs and vegetable seedlings in the green house in preparation for this summer. In addition to the row of garden boxes we have, we have also carved out a little “tea garden.” We are learning what different plants we can grow and dry to make our own loose-leaf tea mixes. This tea garden currently contains…lemon grass, verbena, lemon balm, lemon thyme & lavender.
Some of our plants are ready to harvest and will continue to produce for us throughout the season. Like our strawberry patches, bibb lettuces, the lemon thyme and lavender. Others are rooting and getting ready for their time as Texas heats up.
We hope you enjoyed this quick tour of our victory garden. Please come back next week to learn more about why we are companion planting, why we seed-first for sustainability and our promise to drive home the knowledge of seed to harvest in this little piece of heaven we have been so blessed to call ours.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhIKvNSof20&t=34s