How Does Your Garden Grow?

So far my garden attempt this year is going better than last summer, but it's not without its disasters.

 

 

 

The new bed (in the back) isn't fenced yet to keep the deer out, except for those tomato towers.

 

I planted the bed figuring we would have the fence done before the plants came up and the deer bothered it.

I didn't know the armadillo would climb up there and root it all up during the night, looking for worms and bugs in the nice loose dirt.

So I lost most of my specially ordered seeds to her. Including my precious purple carrot seeds!

I won't replant until we get the fence up. Hopefully soon.

 

 

The French beans have their first blossoms today. So exciting!

Home grown fresh beans taste so good. Why do they let them get so big before they pick them for the stores and farmers' markets?

Behind the beans are onions, spinach, and radishes which we have been eating already.

 

 

 

There are lots of these little guys on the tomato plants.

 

Until I moved to a rural, poor area of the South, I had plenty of places to buy good food, including reasonably priced natural food stores and co-ops, organic and local food available in several supermarkets, an Aldis, farmer's markets, farms where I could purchase meat, maple syrup, honey, and eggs within a few miles of my house, CSAs where I could subscribe and have a box of just-picked vegetables delivered every week in spring, summer and fall.

Living here, not so. To shop organic groceries involves 2 hours of driving. That market is a Whole Foods store on a popular tourist island and the prices reflect it. Mostly, they are outrageous!

Just to shop at an ordinary supermarket is a minimum hour and half of driving, and that also has inflated tourist prices. I can shop in a small store in the nearest small town ... if I want to eat pigs feet, snouts and ears, processed and canned foods, wilted imported produce, and packaged pies and cakes. And because it's a small store, its prices are also high.

The closest farmers' market where local farmers sell their food (rather than bringing in food from a wholesaler and reselling it) is 45 minutes away. We like it but it's expensive, too. Last week we bought a bunch of radishes local but not organic for $3. When we got home we realized there were only five radishes in the bunch so each radish cost 60 cents.

Holy buckets! They're radishes, not gold nuggets!

Anyway, because of where we live, our garden is even more important than mine was in Minnesota and I'm really hoping we can make our little raised beds and deck pots produce some good food for us this year.

 

Posted with Blogsy