How Does Your Garden Grow?

My family and I love fresh fruit and vegetables. Since I moved here in 2005 I spend the summer season at the local farmer's market every weekend. Growing up, my father had a garden, and my son enjoyed helping him tend to it during his visits. So last year my husband and I decided it was time to start a garden of our own.

Unfortunately I backyard has a water issue. We live in a valley, so when there's hard rain, what looks like a river runs through our backyard. This wouldn't be good for a garden because if we had any heavy rains the plants would drown. But I saw an episode of "The Pioneer Woman," and she has raised beds to garden in.

We had found our answer!

I dug out the grass and my husband built the frame.

Then my husband headed to one of the local nurseries to buy plants and the soil to fill the bed. We planted zucchini, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, jalapeños, and another hot pepper of my husband's choosing.

Few things excited my son like checking in on the garden each day!

He would head out there in the morning with husband each day to check the plants' progress and pull any weeds. Later in the evening, when the sun moved to our front yard, they would head out there to water the plants. But that alone wasn't enough for my son. He'd also want to check in on the plants mid-day, when he got home from summer camp. He was addicted!

Last July we had a lot of heat and humidity. It was rough on my hair, but the zucchinis loved it! We were so excited when we saw those first blossoms!

In the end, the zucchini plant fared the best. We had 10 from 1 plant. Amazing! We made zucchini bread, a side dish of sauteed zucchini with oregano and feta cheese, zucchini boats, zucchini parmesan, and I grated some and frozen to make zucchini bread during the winter months.

So when it came time to decide what to plant this year, zucchini was at the top of the list. We also planted orange bell peppers, roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, butternut squash, two different kinds of hot peppers for husband.

I also have an herb garden, but because of the deer who like to roam through our backyard and feast on our vegetation, I find it's best I grow them in pots on my deck. I grow mint, rosemary, cilantro, lemon basil, and 3 sweet basil plants. Yes, that's right, I'm growing 4 kinds of basil because, really, you can never have too much basil.

How does your garden grow?