My Vegetable Garden

We are fortunate enough to have some space dedicated just for a kitchen garden.  It's about 20 feet by 20 feet, but I'd like to expand it over the next several years.  Over the years we've lived here, I've grown many, many different vegetables in this little spot.  But with two young boys to keep me busy, the last couple years I've wittled down what I grow here to a couple handfuls of our favorite vegetables.

The view of the vegetable patch as you enter the back yard.  That's our garage on the north side of the garden.

 We have a few different varieties of pumpkins, always a favorite for me and my boys!

This started as a few small strawberry starts last year.  With a little compost, they are going bananas right now!

 We all love kale, spinach, lettuce and swiss chard.  We have a few varieties growing here.

Mixed in with the leafy greens, we have broccoli and cauliflower, my boys LOVE both!  I always let a few things go to seed and use the seeds for the next year's garden. I also love seeing where the wind carries the seeds when volunteer plants start showing up around the garden in early Spring.

This is my second year growing potatoes vertically.  It's been a great space saver using this technique.

My whole family loves carrots!  It's fun for all of us to walk outside and pull out a carrot for a snack.  I grow them year round, they overwinter really well in my yard.  I got a bit of a late start planting them this year, but they are coming in just fine.

 Our three year old is only one who doesn't like tomatoes.  My favorite variety are the sungolds, they taste like candy!

This ugly shed came with the house.  As ugly as it is, it sure comes in handy for storage.  I'd LOVE to replace it at some point with a cute little wood shed/ studio/ chicken coop.  This little guy here though, he won't let me have chickens yet :-(.

I planted this sage bush as a tiny little thing many years ago.  It has completely outgrown and taken over this space.  I may need to transplant it this fall.  The blooms are at their peak, I may make some strawberry sage blossom jam this week.

I try to rotate crops every couple years and keep incompatible varieties away from each other.  But for the adjustments I need to make and haven't yet, a healthy amount of compost at least once a year keeps everything happy.

If you live in the Seattle area, you should try to stop by Sorticulture this weekend.  It's my favorite garden festival!  Happy Monday, Friends!