Just Like the Farmer in the Dell

Planting my first large vegetable garden was slightly intimidating.  Many years ago, I planted a couple of pots of cherry tomato plants but other than that, my vegetable garden experience is non-existent.  In Illinois, harvest season for vegetable gardens is mainly August.  As a teacher, August has always been a busy month for me getting ready for school to start.  I never felt that I had the time to truly dedicate myself to caring for the harvest of a vegetable garden.  Even the pear and apple trees we have on our property were slightly ignored except for the friends and relatives who came by to help themselves.  I have always wanted to plant a garden, but knew I couldn't do it justice.  So in May I dived right into my Retirement To-Do List and planted a large vegetable garden.

A lot of the plants I chose to put in my garden were ingredients I need to make salsa.  I planted various types of tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and added broccoli, cucumbers, lettuce, corn and green beans.  I used websites for information on harvesting, preserving, and any other information I needed.  This summer, I have enjoyed several salads with fresh lettuce, cucumber and tomato.  I'm expecting a second round of broccoli and I'm looking forward to cooking fresh green beans with new potatoes and a little bit of bacon, just like my mother and grandmother used to.

I have enjoyed everything about my garden this summer - the planting, the weeding, the harvesting and of course, the eating.  Hopefully, I will like the canning.  If canning salsa is successful, and most importantly enjoyable for me,  I will expand my garden next summer with more tomatoes.  More green beans, sweet corn, lettuce and broccoli next year are a definite.  I don't know if it is a result of the marigolds I planted around the perimeter or my cute little scarecrow, but fortunately, the deer and bunnies have left my garden alone.  Moving forward, I do believe I will put a pebble walkway down the middle of the garden to provide easier access.

As I was cleaning out my dad's kitchen cabinets, I ran across some old mason jars that my mother used for canning pickles and green beans.  I remember Mom soaking cucumbers in lime-water in a large ceramic jar.  I also remember my brothers and I sneaking lime pickles and green beans off of the shelf in the cool basement where Mom kept all of the vegetables she had canned over the summer.  So good!  I brought the mason jars home with me in hopes that they will work the same magic for me as they did for my mom.


Harvesting tomatoes, green beans and peppers from my garden