This garden post will be a little different from past vegetable garden posts because I'm gonna show you what everything looks like when newly planted, BEFORE it becomes a jungle. It is always shocking how fast a vegetable garden grows. In a month or two I'll barely be walk past these gardens without be attacked by some scrambling vine.
Every spring my main goal after cleaning and weeding perennial flower beds is to get the vegetable garden in before May 31st. And every year, it seems like a such a huge challenge that will never get done in time, but somehow always does. We turn our beds over every year, which requires lots of back breaking hand shoveling by my husband. Then we add compost, manure, wood shavings, and wood ash to our soil. This year, hubby added three new raised garden beds and I put potatoes in two of the beds, and strawberries in the other bed.
Hubby has almost completed phase two of this raised bed garden. If you've been following along over the years, this hillside has become a four year project 😆 and I felt I've been living in a construction zone instead of a beautifully landscaped garden. But, when you do all the work yourself, and you only have weekends (when you're not traveling) to work on it, it takes a LONG TIME to finish it.
THIS POST shows where he finished off last year. He started tearing out the hillside in the fall of 2024, and now it's spring of 2026 and this is as far as he gotten. He informed me that all he will do this year is put the railings on (there's a steep drop off on the right that is not safe), and the final lower level will not be completed until next year 😞, so the saga continues. BUT, what he has completed so far looks AMAZING and I know it's a lot of hard work and time, so I am grateful and blessed!
The second tier of the hillside consists of a raised stomach high bed on the right, with a boardwalk in-between three garden beds on the left.
I got a new ceramic bird bath at
Menards (free with rebates!) and I placed it on the end of the deck. I added a solar fountain from
Amazon, which works great so I highly recommend it. It's been fun watching the birds try and land inside the fountain. It's early yet, but I haven't seen much bird activity other than that. I know it takes a while for birds to accept something new in the garden.
In the tallest raised bed I have onions, herbs, and beans. I'm hoping my beans don't get eaten as this area of the garden is not caged in. I think the smelly onions help keep critters away.
On the farthest end of this garden I have a large rhubarb plant. I've already been cutting and freezing rhubarb this year and I made one dessert
Rhubarb and Strawberry Bars...yum, they were so good!
I had some extra space at the end of this bed, so I added some broccoli. I had to cage it however, as like I said earlier, this bed is exposed to critters! The bush beans I will train to hang over the edge of the raised bed, that is how I create space for it all.
My daughter has been growing strawberries for years and has had huge success with them, so my hubby and I decided to try it. I've tried them before, and they grew great the first year, but died over the winter. My daughter lives in a slightly warmer state so she never has this problem. However, there are strawberry farms in this area, so I know we can grow them here. Hubby made this fabulous cage to go above the bed that keeps all the critters out. I had no idea how beloved strawberry plants are to so many critters! The top frame lifts up so I an access the plants.
In the first caged in area off the screened porch I planted carrots, broccoli, peas, radishes, beets, lettuce, spinach, and kale.
The kale is just scrumptious this year. I've already cut some to use in a meal.
I've also had a bountiful supply of radishes. My issue with radishes is there is no way to preserve them (other than a relish) that I know of and I get all these radishes at once and no one else eats them but me. So right now, every time I pass the fridge, I'm popping a radish in my mouth! 😃
See the little guy popping out of the earth?
This batch was my second picking of the spring. Aren't they gorgeous? My first crop always turns out amazing, but every time I try a second crop they just turn into a long root, so I've stopped trying for that second crop.
Speaking of second crops, I always plant spinach in the fall in addition to the spring and with this plant I do get a nice second crop and sometimes the plants even survive the winter! This beautiful spinach grew from last fall's crop. We've already been enjoying its yummy leaves in our meals.
This year we purchased twice as many pepper plants than we ever had because I didn't get enough peppers off my plants last year. Part of it was summer storms knocking off heavy branches before the fruit ripened and the other part was the area I always planted them in got more shady as trees developed; so, I've moved most of the peppers to a new location and I plan on staking them with some cattle fencing. We will see if they do better here. I also added more broccoli here. I tucked in broccoli plants wherever I could as we never seem to have enough broccoli. I also put a four tomato plants in this garden and I will terrace them up the fence.
My little broccoli plant, such a cutie 😙
In the biggest garden bed in front of the sunroom windows, I planted more potatoes, tomatoes, summer and winter squash, and more peppers. This garden will be a jungle by the end of the summer. The cattle fencing will be barely visible and vines will be growing across the beams. It's amazing to me the huge plants that will grow from the tiniest of seed.
My little tomato plants with potatoes growing in front. I know, you're not suppose to plant the two together but I have done this for years with no issues.
I even have some potatoes sprouting already!
My little pepper plants which will very quickly grow knee to thigh high and bush out.
And my summer and winter squash have germinated already! I'm just waiting on the zucchini.
In the back patio garden I planted more broccoli and a row of cauliflower.
There is a raspberry shrub and some chive behind the broccoli. The shrub barely produces any raspberries.
And here is my cauliflower garden. Do you like my window boxes? My friend resided her house and the window boxes were on their house. They didn't want to screw them back on to new siding so she gave them to me. I love them so much. They add so much to the back patio.
I picked up this cute little garden stone from Hobby Lobby at the end of last summer. I always wait till everything's 75% or 90% off and grab whatever is left. Unfortunately most of the good stuff is gone by then, but I always find some gems.
I just love the pretty little flowers on chives. Now, if only they wouldn't reseed all over. 😃
And I can't end a garden post without showing you a couple of critters. This little guy amused me the other day because of how he was casually laying in the lawn. He laid there for quite a while too! If you notice on the left you will see some netting. I have that draped over my petunias to keep him from eating it. He wasn't in my flower garden, he was eating the clover in the "lawn", so I let him be. I just found his casualness hysterical as he was only steps away from my front porch. He had no fear whatsoever 😆
And I found these two squirrels very entertaining as they "shared" the bird feeder. Notice I said "bird feeder". JK, I actually put this feeder out for them and the larger birds, it helps to keep them out of the actual bird feeders if I give them their own food.
Even though critters can annoy me to death were the destruction they can do in a garden, I still enjoy having their company. They are so fun to watch.
I hope you enjoyed my newly planted vegetable garden post. I will come back in a month and do another post. You will be shocked at how much grew in a month!
Have A Great Day! Amy
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