Container Gardening and free classes with Craftys!

I've always wanted to have my own farm with tons of gardening beds to grow enough fruits and vegetables to feed my family for the entire year! Living on a farm and having enough acreage to have a garden of that size is not very easy or financial realistic living in the suburbs of Chicago. Unless, you want to drive far outside the area to afford something like this.

We were blessed to purchase a home that has an amazing backyard. To be honest, the deciding factor in our home search was the yard. We're outdoorsy people and need a space where we could really do what we want. With that being said, I need to be methodically and inventive with how I plan my garden this year. While it would be amazing to fill the entire backyard with raised garden beds that wouldn't be fair to the kids or the hubby. So instead I am looking more into container gardening and utilizing our amazing and rather large deck as a place to layout my plans.

My first garden update

Summer is already half way gone. I knew having my a veggie garden was work. I knew there would be things I would learn along the way and this would be a process for the next several years. We are almost half way through the growing season here in zone 5 and I can already think of a couple things I've learned so far.

1. Space
I didn't anticipate how much space each plant would need and take up, therefore there are some plants that are drowning underneath others... my carrots for one. Allow for enough space for the plants to mature so it doesn't look like a jungle and you allow room for other ones to grow.

2. Trellis
Cucumbers need a trellis or something to grow up otherwise it will attach itself to anything else including the plants next to it, the ground, or the side of the garden.

3. Cucumbers come from their flowers. I must have spent a week staring at this plant and wondering, while I watched the rest of my plants spring fruit and veggies, where the heck are the cucumbers. Only did I realize, after looking online, they were coming from their flowers.

4. You don't need 5 of everything.
I started out planting entire rows of different varieties of peppers realizing I don't need 6 cayenne pepper bushes. Next year we will be cutting back on some and adding on others.

 Green Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

So that's what I got for ya so far, folks! I will be posting more pictures shortly as it looks like we are to have some pickable veggies soon! How is your garden coming along?