Still alive!

Things have really started filling out in the garden. The first day we dug up the area, it seemed huge to me and I didn't think we'd be able to fill all that space... Now it almost seems like I don't have enough room. There are still some plants I had hoped to include that I don't have, either because I couldn't track down plants or seeds in time; or, I planted seeds and then killed them. Yes, I have managed to kill quite a few plants so far. BUT... There are still lots growing quite well. I think I'll even have fresh cucumbers soon!

I'd like to include a sketched plot of the garden eventually, but in the meantime, here are some photo updates.

First harvest! These are baby Rainbow Swiss Chard leaves. Before eating the above leaves, I had never tasted the plant. It's so colourful though, I wanted to include it in the garden. Turns out it's not my favourite tasting vegetable, but it does add some nice colour to a dish, and if I sauté it, it blends well with other flavours.

I didn't make anything special with our first food from the garden. Just a quick chickpea/potato dish to eat while working. It was a couple weeks ago now, so I can't remember quantities too well, but it went something like this:

Potatoes, chopped and boiled until soft.

Garlic and onion, chopped and sautéed with olive oil.

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

Chopped rainbow swiss chard (yay!)

Baby spinach leaves

Cilantro, chopped.

Garam Masala powder

salt and pepper

Add spices to softened onion and garlic; add chickpeas and drained potatoes and stir together; add greens. Serve with lemon. Simple, but healthy and filling.

My niece Jordyn helps water the plants a week or two after we dug up the area.

Here you can see the trellises I made out of bamboo and plastic zip ties. It was a rather tedious and time consuming task, but when the cheapest pre-made ones I could find were $15.99 each (I would have needed at least six, and likely more than that), I decided it would probably be worth it. And it was--I made everything I needed and only spent $15 total. They aren't as attractive as the ones I wanted to buy, but hopefully they'll be covered with plants before long, right?

Here's the garden a couple weeks after the last photo. Looking greener!

And again.

And here, clockwise from the bottom right: cilantro, chamomile, basil, sweet thai basil, butternut squash, cucumber (so far, the fastest growing plant, I think), and the tomatoes that were eaten all the way back to just stalks a few weeks before by birds and beetles in the yard.

Oh, yes, there was a tomato fiasco! At the time, I was devastated because I'd been growing these tomato plants from seed since February. Tomatoes were actually the motivating force behind me starting a garden at all, and for a while there, I thought I was going to lose all the plants. Miraculously though, (or so it seemed to me!) my tomato stalks sprouted new leaves and have nearly caught up with the rest of the plants. Phew!

Those skewers sticking out of the ground had once supported healthy, young tomato plants.

More to come!