30 Days of Gratefulness: Day 6, My Garden

I am thankful that despite the fact that our tenants were doing all the gardening at our house, I was still able to have one across the street at a community garden.  It was just built this year.  I love the neighborhood we live in, it's growing and new and exciting things are happening all the time.  We got to rent this plot for only $20.00.  They had water right there and we got to know some of our neighbors.  We met another VW Van lover who lives right around the corner.

It was so fun to check on the progress every day.  It is such a miracle to watch food grow from seeds.  

Doesn't food that you grow taste so much better?  Yum!

I'm still pretty new to gardening, but it was fun to give it a go.  We planted white beans, green onions, broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, cilantro, basil, butternut squash, and some cucumbers.  We bordered the garden with zinnias.
Some notes:
The butternut squash took over by the end of the season and overshadowed and killed the carrots and lettuce.  We could have picked the squash just before it got ripe to let it ripen inside.  Maybe it could grow on a trellis?  It was so exciting to see them grow.  We waited patiently to pick them only to find out the squirrels beat us to them!

We had a little weird thing happen.  Right after we planted, someone stole our basil plant and replaced it with a puny one.  Someone planted a nice big pepper plant in our plot.  Someone or something pulled up the cucumber plants.  I guess this is what happens with a community garden.  Not too bad considering there was no fence.

I had so much fun sharing my zinnias with kids strolling through the garden.  Flowers are always a good idea.  One little girl got to pick some and she planned on giving them to her mom who was in the hospital.  I want to also plant dahlias next year, even though they come up later.  A little sunflower plant would be fun also.

The green onions did great.  The broccoli got huge.  Eventually it produced, I'm not sure why it got so tall.  The tomatoes did ok.  It will be better to plant earlier next year.  The peppers did well.  The basil and cilantro grew great, much better than how it grew in the pots.  I still think it's worth it to buy a good basil plant, I have trouble growing them from seed.

Things I would like to plant next year: kale, jalapenos, fingerling potatoes, garlic, shallots

All in all, we only got a little bit of food, but it was a good learning experience and I think next year will be even better!