Vegetable and Herb Garden Boxes

Princess: Hey, Queenie, quit eating weeds and come over here and see what Duchess and I found.

Do you think they planted all this for us?

Me: Well, I don't know how to break it to you, girls, but the answer is NO.

So far we haven't had any trouble with the chickens getting in the garden, but it's only been planted a few days.

Normally we don't put our garden in until mid-March, but since we haven't had a freeze all winter and we've been having springlike weather, we decided to go ahead and risk it. I think this is our earliest garden yet.

In the herb box is oregano, fennel, rosemary, and tarragon (and more). These four herbs are established or have reseeded themselves, though we did have to dig up and transplant the oregano in order to build up the soil that had washed out on that end of the box.

New herb plantings include...

sage,

flat leaf Italian parsley (because they say it's the best to cook with),

and curly leaf parsley (because I think I like it better).

Thyme, which is my favorite herb, is planted in a pot on the porch, as are a couple of varieties of mint. You can see dill in center of the vegetable box below.

Planted in the front and sides of the dill are various peppers—some spicy, some not.

Curly kale is planted behind. It won't last long in our climate and will be replaced with hot weather vegetables like okra and purple hull peas. I think John told me he planted carrot seeds in here, too. And he either sowed seeds for squash and zucchini or he's going to buy plants later, I'm not sure.

And then we come to the star of every vegetable garden, in my opinion, the tomato. There's just no way a store bought tomato can ever measure up to a homegrown one. This variety pictured is Celebrity. We also have planted some cherry and grape tomatoes.

Cucumbers will grow on the wooden frame in the front of this box.

By the time the cucumbers and tomatoes grow large enough to fill up the space, the romaine lettuce that is growing between the two will have been picked and eaten.

With God's blessing, we are looking forward to a bountiful harvest.