Gardening in the Boondocks

We never had time to care for a garden before we moved to the Boondocks. So this was a real treat and a learning experience. We spent one day planting and the kids had a blast. They were very good at helping take care of it. We also planted grass in the front yard. It was so weed infested when we first moved in that you could hardly walk to the front door. But the real fun came when it was time to pick and eat the vegetables/fruit. We planted in the beginning of June and it is now the beginning of October and we are still picking watermelon, tomatoes, carrots and peas. Other things we planted were corn, zucchini, pumpkins, cantelope, cucumber, and strawberries. We have had an especially good crop of tomatoes and so far have bottled 10 quarts of salsa and 6 quarts & 8 pints of spaghetti sauce. Yes, I know it is hard to believe I actually canned something...but I couldn't let all the tomatoes go to waste after our hard work. A couple of days ago, after canning a batch of salsa, Cassidy and I went out to the garden and picked 50 more tomatoes. So, I guess we will be doing more canning this week! The pumpkins from our garden also have been fun to watch grow. They are huge! We will have lots of fun carving them for Halloween.