Whenever I think of my childhood in Ukraine, I always remember the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables from my parents garden. We had everything, from potatoes, to onions, apricots,cherries, to watermelon, just to name a few. I loved eating all of the bounty from the garden, but I did NOT enjoy helping out and working the garden. At all. When we moved to America, I thought that our gardening days were over. I mean, who needs a garden in the land of huge supermarkets with everything you'll ever want?? Well, my parents had a different idea. As soon as we bought a house, my parents got to working on their little garden, always trying to get us involved. Once again, I loved the bounty, but did NOT like the work! Fast forward a number of years, I am now a married woman with my own garden. Gasp! What?! How?! Well, we live in a dainty little apartment that came with a little plot of land. The first year, we didn't even think if a garden. The second year, we went to Lowes, bought everything we needed, and returned it the next day because it seemed so intimidating! When the third year came around, I was domesticated enough to feel up to the challenge. And so that is how our little garden came to be about. When we were planting, I really wished that I gave into my Moms pleas to help her in her garden, but hind sight is 20/20, right?
Day 1: some cucumber and tomato plants. We didn't realize that in a few short months, these sticks would barely be tall enough to support these green monsters!
Here are a few things that I learned:
1. When you combine soil on crack (seriously, there must be something in our soil), regular rain (I am a typical Gardner, thankful for rain) and constant sun, you'll get GIANT tomato and cucumber plants. Note to self for next year: space them out a bit more. Our cucumber plants are trying to choke out our tomato plants by twisting their little green string around them. I feel like a referee constantly separating the plants.
2. Cayenne pepper. Is. The. Answer. When we firsts moved here, I couldn't sleep for a few days because I thought we were being robbed. I was convinced the noise on our roof belonged to mean burglars who were going to come crashing in any second. Come to find out, the noise came from big, mean raccoons. That is NOT good for a garden! Thankfully, our kind neighbor shared her tip to keeping the raccoons at bay: sprinkle cayenne pepper all over and nothing will touch the plants. It's safe for the plants, and keeps EVERYTHING else away. Low and behold, she was right! The raccoons kept their distance, allowing our plants to grow to be almost as tall as me!
3. Follow instructions on the seed packets. I decided to plant radishes and bought a seed packet. The instructions said to plant the seeds about an inch apart to allow for growth. I figured it was a typo and just sort of sprinkled the seeds in a row, NOT an inch apart from each other. More like one on top of the other. Needless to say, we have no radishes, just the green leaves. Turns out they DO need space to grow. It all makes sense now.. You live you learn!
4. Green thumbs is not a figurative term. I always though it was a term that was used to describe gardeners because most plants are green. What I learned is that it's a very literal term. My thumbs will forever be a shade of green, no matter how hard I scrub. Oh we'll, green brings out my eye color
Enjoying some tea with mint leaves from the garden. So good and refreshing!
Drying some mint and rosemary. It'll be nice to have something to remind us of warm summer days in the cold, bitter winter.
So far, we've enjoyed some cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and herbs from our garden. Our large tomatoes are taking their time ripening. There must be over 50 green tomatoes on the plants I'm hoping they'll ripen before we leave for our little 17 day adventure!
A small sampling of our herbs. This bunch was turned into
1. Pesto
2. Mojitos
3. Rosemary herb butter
4. Parsley herb butter
5. Chimichurri sauce
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