Vegetable Garden Tips

Each year we grow a garden as a family. Do you want to create your own? Learn to build raised beds, favorite supplies and vegetable garden tips.

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

Audrey Hepburn

Ever since the boys were very little we’ve planted a garden. It’s certainly made them try things like husk cherries and chili peppers, and given them the responsibility of caring for nature. Since we’re starting work on our garden for this year, I thought it would be a great time to share some tips and photos of our garden over the years as part of the Cozy Living Series hosted by my friend Jennifer.

Here’s how our garden is looking this year:

Very early days as it’s been pretty cold here in New England. We’ve started planting the cold vegetables so far. Before I share what we’ve planted and what we enjoy planting, let’s discuss raised beds:

Creating a Garden

To start your garden I highly recommend building some raised beds. They don’t take long but you’ll want to find the sunniest location in your yard. We decided on this spot which is behind our deck. The other side of our yard has the pool.

How to Build Raised Garden Beds

You can see the full tutorial for the building of the beds here. It’s a great weekend project.

You’ll want to use a mix of compost and good soil for your beds. Make sure to add fish, blood, and bone to the soil, as well.

What to Plant

We plant what we like to eat. Many people start with seeds and grow seedlings but our local organic farm, Holly Hill Farm, does such a great job and I love supporting them. Each year we usually go and Conor picks out about 8 varieties of tomatoes, chili peppers, lettuces, kale, cucumbers etc. We usually do tomatoes, peppers, and chilis in one bed and lettuces, rhubarb, and kale in the other.

The other day we planted red leaf lettuce.

Siberian Kale, Pac Choi, Sorrel, Shallots and Cipollini Onions.

I always create a line and plant evenly spaced.

Max was very interested in what we were doing:

Hopefully he’s a good boy. When he was a puppy we used to have to put fencing up to keep him out of the garden. I felt like I was living with Peter Rabbit.

Here’s some photos of previous year’s gardens:

I can’t believe how little the boys were in these! See more photos here.

Here are some photos from another year, two years ago’s garden.

Cucmbers did really well! I think we need to try and grow them again.

A plant that ALWAYS does well and kind of goes crazy if you’re looking for something is rhubarb. Look how big it already is in our yard:

We love using it in cakes, in cocktails, and in delicious rhubarb and apple crumble. It tastes like summer to me!

Other Things to Grow

In addition to our raised beds we’ve added berries. We have a Gooseberry and Elderberry.

A wild black raspberry bush that has the sweetest little black berries.

We also grow potatoes in buckets. We’ve found that growing them in smaller buckets works for us.

Keeping Pests at Bay

You can use a wire fence but we’ve had great luck with planting marigolds. We get lots of bunnies in our yard but they don’t like the smell of marigolds.

Last year I made the mistake of planting giant marigolds. That was a BIG mistake. I thought it meant the flowers would be giant but we grew 5 foot marigolds which overtook the garden.

Garden Markers

It’s fun to make your own garden markers. Our boys collect rocks at the beach so we painted some with the names of the plants. You can see the tutorial here. We still need to make some for this year!

Watering Your Garden

Watering is such a key part of growing a garden. Our town usually has water restrictions int he summer so we invested in a rain barrel and fill the watering can.

Keeping It Organic

For fertilizing and feeding the plants I use this plant food and also love fish, blood and bone. I don’t use artificial growth enhancers.

I know it’s looking a little bare right now, but I’m really looking forward to growing a beautiful garden with my boys and also looking forward to cherishing the food that grows from that garden.

Be sure to visit my friends before for some more Cozy Living Ideas:

Creative Cain Cabin / It All Started with Paint / Vinyet Etc. / Hymns and Verses

Finding Silver Pennies / Duke Manor Farm / Town and Country Living