Our Gardening Journey

Ten years ago, my husband and I

thought it would be a fun to

have a garden.  We were living in

California at the time and had no

experience at all in the art of

gardening.  I was

determined to make it work.

Do you know that we did not

harvest a single vegetable out of

that garden?  Not even a radish!

Our kids working hard for those veggies that never came

Our Children worked very hard

on that garden.

 Luke

Two years ago, I thought we would

give gardening another try.

My husband was a little hesitant since

our first attempt didn’t go well

at all.

We were still living in California

and my reason for this adventure was

different than before.  I wanted

my kids to learn how to grow their own

food before they left home some

day.  We were so spoiled with our

three wonderful markets around

the corner from our house.  Fresh organic

vegetables were right there at our

finger tips.  When they were sold out,

I’m embarrassed to say we got

a little huffy.

There was something wrong with

this picture don’t you think?

So…

we decided to use raised beds

and we planted all our seeds and

Plants.

Do you know what happened next?

The Lord decided we were going to

Move. 

Our real estate agent came over to

Give us our list of “to dos” before

Our house went up for sale.

Do you know what he said to us?

“The garden has to go!”

Out came all the plants and in came

the sod.

Next attempt?

Let’s try it again,

In Tennessee!

 

 

 Luke building our raised beds here in Tennessee

last year.

 

Last year was our first year of

gardening in Tennessee.

The Lord blessed the fruits of our

Labor.

Beautiful veggies came out of our

garden.  Of course some didn’t make

it, yet others were in abundance.

 We stared with four raised beds

And a plowed 20’ x 20’ plot.

Everything that grew in the raised

Did well, however, the other not so

Well.

This year our friends, the Martins, blessed

us with 4 more raised beds.

The challenge was to fill them with

good soil.  Friends of ours

donated lots of goodies to make a

lasagna garden inside those empty boxes.

We are praying the Lord will make

 those veggies grow.

 We cover the ground between and

outside the beds with straw to keep

down the weeds and help us after

the rain with the mud.

 Straw is also used in the beds

for mulch, which keeps the plants

from losing moisture from the hot

weather.

 One of our church families was so

Generous to give us tomato, pepper,

cucumber, watermelon, tomatillos,

basil and apple mint plants from their

greenhouse.

 Our potato plants are already flowering

and the plants themselves look very healthy and…

no potato beetles!  Yet.

Please Lord, keep the beetles away!

We planted potatoes using the straw

method.  First, we put down newspaper

right on the ground.  Then we placed

the seed potatoes on the newspaper

and covered them with a thick

layer of straw.

Some say this method doesn’t work

well but our soil is very rocky and

clayish so we decided to try

it this year.

Beautiful pepper plants!

We planted sweet, Cayenne, Anaheim

and Jalapeno peppers.

I’ll be canning some wonderful pepper

Jelly with the jalapenos and roasting

and freezing the Anahiems.

As my friend Cathy S. would say, “Yummo!”

We’ll be planting Green Beans and

Okra this week.

Did you know that I’ve never eaten Okra?

Oh dear!

~

Happy Gardening, my dear friends!

~

Remember, we plant and water, but it’s

the Lord that makes it grow.

~

Christa