Cluck Wild Homestead: How Does Your Garden Grow?

The sun on your face, green grass, and best of all, dirt; I miss warm weather. Like all vegetable gardeners, I get cranky and repressed when it gets cold and gloomy. My cabin fever seems a bit worse than usual this winter. Our first winter (and first coming spring) on the farm may have something to do with it. I have so many things planned for our acreage, and I want spring to be here, like, now! Alas, since I am not a wizard, and can do nothing about the cold, I spend my winter free time planning and researching homesteading ventures.

Vegetable gardening is in my blood. My mom and dad gardened for many, many years, as did my grandparents. If I couldn't garden, I think I would just wither up and die. I love it that much. As the years go by, and with every new house we've moved into, my vegetable garden has grown. Due to renting restrictions, the garden at our first house, 8' x 8', was very small compared to what I wanted. The second house permitted a much larger garden, 20' x 30'. That garden grew plenty for us to eat over the summer, and sixty plus pounds combined of broccoli, corn, and tomatoes to store in the deep freeze for winter. I also canned five dozen pints of pickles, two dozen pints of pickled green beans, two dozen pints of pasta sauce, three dozen pints of salsa, and two dozen half pints of pizza sauce. It gives me a rush every time I grab packages of green beans out of the deep freeze for upcoming meals. I think, 'I grew these green beans, I blanched these green beans! It's december and they taste like they're straight from the garden!'

Vegetable gardens don't have to be huge to be beneficial. You'd be surprised at the amount of veggies we got from our first, and tiny 8' x 8' garden. Work with what you have. This year with the space we've acquired, its gonna be 'go big or go home' for us. I'm planning a 60' x 100' garden. Do we I need that large of a vegetable garden for just two people? No. Do I want that large of a veggie garden? Absolutely! Someday I would love to sell my veggies and homemade goods at farmers markets, and that would warrant an even larger garden. For now, 60' x 100' will give me plenty of room to grow the large variety of veggies I want, as well as enough in number to provide food for the hubby and I throughout the entire winter. I'm sure our family and friends will be kind enough to take some homegrown heirloom veggies off our hands.

Below are some of the highlights of my vegetable garden list. I just ordered these seeds, among many others, so I'll probably spend the remainder of winter staring at the packages, patiently waiting to start the seeds in the upcoming greenhouse.

Disclaimer: These photos are not mine, most were taken from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Ananas Noire Tomato- Aren't they gorgeous?!