Spring Gardening!

Last year I really wanted to plant tomatoes and some other things so I stared a small raised garden in the backyard.  It reminded me of the Victory Gardens that people used to plant during one of the World Wars (I or II ??) My daughter calls it my 'apocalypse' garden since I joked that I was doing it so that we could be self sufficient in case of an apocalypse!  I used some old cement blocks and filled it with soil.  Then I planted tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, beets, and zucchini.  I realized pretty quickly that I put way too many things in that one poor little space but I still had very successful crops of tomatoes and cucumbers all summer.  Late summer brought bunches of eggplants!  It was a very fun experience except for the fact that my zucchini all died early on and that disappointed me.  I knew that I was going to try it again this summer and today was the day to get going!  I worked on the bed and then my little daughter and I planted a few tomato plants, 2 egg plants, 4 zucchini and 4 cucumber plants.  This is a lot less than last year and I am happy with the way it turned out.  It started getting dark before I could get a picture but I will post one tomorrow.

I also have a small kitchen herb garden right outside my back door.  Last year I grew basil, thyme, chives, rosemary and oregano in it.  I also have pots of mint (for my mojito's!!) on the patio.  Today I was able to trim up and get my herb garden up and running again.  I planted more basil and rosemary but my thyme and chives were still doing well from last year.  You would think by all of this that I am some sort of master gardener but it is actually just the opposite.  I don't have a clue what I am doing, just reading books and magazines here and there!

While I was gardening away, my husband was making a seafood boil in the backyard.  He has a giant pot that he boils crawfish, mushrooms, potatoes, corn, blue crabs and giant gulf shrimp in.  We set out an old table. covered it with newspaper and feasted surrounded by our fresh new gardens!  Our oldest daughter preferred the crawfish and the younger one likes the shrimp but says it's all too spicy for her. After we were done we went for ice cream.  A wonderful end to another perfectly simple day!!