My Victory Garden

When we purchased our house last summer, the main thing we were disappointed in was the lot size. In Brenham, we had almost an acre of land and now we have maybe a tenth, if even that.

Turns out that is not such a bad thing; less grass to mow. On the other hand, not much space to plant our garden. Another problem are the oak trees, but I am not complaining because we did not have these at our old house. We have seven large pin oaks which covers 75% of our yard in shade. This is wonderful for utilities but not so wonderful for gardening.

This is my herb garden. I planted thyme, basil, cilantro, and flat leaf parsley. It gets a good amount of morning sun so I think they will do OK. I am noticing the basil turning a little yellow so I might dig it up and transplant it in the vegetable garden. They thyme however is loving the spot.

My strawberry garden. I planted them in a hanging basket so the fruit could "air out". If you grow strawberries, make sure they do not lay on the ground or they will rot. We have managed to eat one berry, the crazy squirrels have eaten the rest!! That is another challenge with all the trees, squirrels.

Getting the ground tilled. We debated on raised beds but opted for this. We already owned the tiller and if we made raised beds we would need to bring in dirt, which meant more money.

I took this picture way to far away! That's my mom watering my babies. See the old nasty fence in the background, that's gone! We replaced it over spring break.

Our garden after about three weeks.

Arugula

Onions

Bush peas

Tomatoes

From seed we planted arugula, salad mix, spinach, peas, and carrots. We transplanted onions, cucumbers, squash and zuch, eggplant, cayenne pepper, bell pepper, 3 Big Boy tomatoes, and a Yellow Pear tomato.

Last week I went out and thinned my spinach. This broke my heart because you pull out baby plants and toss them to the side. I tried transplanting them to an empty spot but I don't think they are doing to well. My arugula needs thinning too but I am dragging my feet.

Check out this video . It is very thought provoking and inspiring. It doesn't hurt that this family lives in southern California and probably doesn't have a home owner's association. I'm still trying to figure out how I can get chickens past my HOA :) We are talking about planting blueberry bushes on one side of our house like hedges and a couple of citrus trees in the front too. Did you see that solar oven? How great would that be if we had another hurricane and no power for two weeks?