Vegetable Garden

Growing up my family always had a garden and my brothers and I always had help...from tying up tomatoes, picking okra, snapping beans, cutting worms out of the corn, or whatever else needed done! I enjoyed the fresh vegetables, but not all of the work. Well, as soon as my husband and I moved to the country I had to plant my own garden! It's interesting how growing up I hated garden work and then I couldn't wait to have my very own. So, here is a look at my very own vegetable garden:I have planted zucchini,cucumbers, green beans, okra and tomatoes. My garden is not very big...approximately 16' x 22' (that is a guess). I planted my vine plants (zucchini and cucumbers) in hills because that is how my dad always did it. I planted 5 or so seeds and then once they emerged I thinned it to 2 plants per hill.

Here is the zucchini and cucumbers (they are small because I had to replant...no thanks to our dog):

I planted one row of green beans. The only maintenance I have done for this row is to weed. I planted a 2/3 row of okra. If you plant okra make sure and get the seed for dwarf okra plants or else the plants will get over 7 ft tall!!

I planted 8 tomato plants. I waited too long to put cages on them, so I had to stake the tomotoes that were too big for the cages I have (don't laugh at the cages...they were my dad's).

You need to "sucker" the tomato plants, which means to pull the tiny branches/leaves that are growing in between the main stalk and the branch. Here is a picture so you know what I'm talking about.

I tried to mulch the vine plants and the tomato plants. I put newspaper under the grass clippings around the tomato plants and just used grass clippings around the vine plants. I haven't been able to determine that the newspaper helps any more than plain grass.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention...I dust my garden with SEVEN to keep the bugs off of the plants. One bag of dust will go a long way. I put the dust into a pint jar with a lid that I have poked holes in and that makes dusting very easy. The dust gets washed off when it rains, so you will want to reapply after rain.

There you have it. Let me know if you have specific questions about the plants I planted or about other garden vegetables you may have in your garden.