Last year was the first time I tried bush beans. I had tried green beans in the past and they always flopped. These bush beans did amazing last year and I froze about 10 quarts in addition to the ones we ate fresh. This was all off 2 rows. This year I planted them again and once again they are doing amazing. They did have a rocky start that I am still not quite sure what happened. The seedlings sprouted and only about half of them came up. The others died, I imagine, due to the extreme heat/dryness. Almost all of them that came up had no leaves on them? I haven't ever had this happen before. I quickly replanted them and now have a bountiful harvest for the past couple months. We all love to have garden green beans in the winter!
The potatoes were not so wonderful this year. They had never done well in our garden so last year my husband tilled me a potato patch in a different area. Last year we had tons of potatoes and nice sizes too. This year I believe the weather got to them and the plants died very early. The potatoes we did get were mainly tiny ones with a few that were nice sized. No big ones like I like to use, though. The potatoes are a lot of work to have the harvest so dissappointing! Next year I am seriously thinking about turning the potato patch into a pumpkin patch.
This year was my second year attempting broccoli after a wonderful first year. Again this year we had plenty to freeze from our 4 plants. I love broccoli plants -they are low maintenance and it tastes so much better than store bought broccoli. I planted 4 more plants hoping to get even more into the freezer.
Another crop that excites me early each spring is our asparagus. I never realized I liked it so well, but when we moved here we noticed there were patches everywhere! It was in all the pastures -a patch here and a patch there. Every spring I harvest as much as I can and either eat it or freeze it. This year I planted some new plants up close to the house. We will see how they end up doing. Every time we go asparagus "hunting" it's a long hike to get it, which provides all of us our daily exercise.
One of my favorite things about gardening and living in such a wide open place is that I can do just about whatever I want to with the garden. I can plant anything I want to and wherever I want to. The other great thing is that it gets the kids involved and teaches them about planting and growing your own healthy foods. They love to help plant everything and watch it grow. They also love to help pick everything and of course help eat everything!
HAVE A GREAT DAY!
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