My 2nd post in #samsaturday by @bluemoon will be about another passion of mine. I am very conscious about what I put into my body. As I have gotten older I have realized that my diet is all the more important. With the way our food is now produced, my enthusiasm for gardening has become a bigger part of my life. Since retiring two years ago, I have been able to grow enough vegetables to take me from one growing season to the next.
The raised beds were constructed for two reasons, the soil where I live is rich, but filled with rocks, and as I get older, bending can be kept to a minimum.
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Compost has been breaking down for a year now and is ready to put into the raised boxes. The compost is a mixture of vegetable scraps, grass clippings, leaves from Sugar Maple trees, horse manure, egg shells, coffee grinds, and other organic material.
Planting starts as soon as the ground has defrosted. Vegetables like spinach, cabbage, peas, potatoes, and onions can be planted early. The other vegetables we wait for a while longer until the threat of frost is gone. Potato eyes are ready to be planted as the bed has been prepared.
Planting the garden in the upright position is already paying dividends!
Beets being a favorite, are planted is abundance.
By the middle of the growing season the vegetable plants are thriving.
With many of the vegetables mature, we will start to consume, with plenty to put into storage .
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Blanching and vacuum sealing keeps the vegetables good for a year.
Beets being prepared for the deep freeze.
Corn is cut off of the cob for nib-lets, corn on the cob is left whole and vacuum sealed. Eating corn on the cob through the winter warms the soul.
Besides the vegetables we grow, there is a bounty of fruits and vegetables that need no tending as they grow wild in this area.
Raspberries and blackberries are made into syrups. The sauces are great for salads, ice cream, and for marinating.
This year we vacuum packed over 40 pounds of organic Blueberries.
Fields of wild leeks
Leeks are great to add to all different dishes. they have a flavor between an onion and garlic.
By the time the growing season has departed we have filled the freezer with enough produce to keep us away from pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides for another year.
Hope you enjoyed! thebigsweed
Thank you for this awesome garden journey. I learned a lot. I love the idea of the standing height raised beds!
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Thanks for the reply. Second year with raised beds. Besides standing up, the weeding is a lot less in a confined bed.
Last year we also planted several grafted apple trees. Five branches have been grafted to a piece of root stock. Each graft produces a different apple. The beauty of these unique apple trees is that they will cross-pollinate themselves. The different apples also will bear fruit at different times of the year. This will provide us with apples for a longer period.
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What a great harvest you have had! Love your raised beds. Your freezer full of produce looks like mine! Except all my veggies come from my CSA farm. I let them do the work!
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Nothing like having produce squirreled away. Gardening takes a lot of effort, but ever since I retired I do not put many items in the work category any longer. I refer to almost all things I do now as hobbitational. My own word for most all activities that I can walk away from when they start to become that nasty four letter word. (work)
Thanks for the reply and the up-vote
Always appreciated, Always humbled!
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I love gardening, and have always grown my own veggies. It is too shady where I live now. And it is a constant battle with wildlife to try to grow anything, so I just grow a few pots of shade loving plants on my deck and let someone else do the real gardening for me. Your raised bed are ideal!
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