First Year Gardener

Hey Ya'll!! I've officially been a home owner for 2 months now! YIPPEE! And this year, in lieu of the fact that I have a yard, I've decided to try my hand at gardening. There is something very liberating about growing your own food. I was raised by a 60 year old lady (MY GREAT GREAT AUNT), my Auntie, who kept a garden every year. As a child, I would wander through her garden and look at all the pretty tomatoes growing up the vine. They were always the prettiest shade of red. I LOVED walking the dirt rows of the garden in my bare feet. There was FOOD growing in her back yard! Who'da thunk it?!

I grew up eating corn on the cob, fried okra, squash, onions, watermelon, cherry pie, peach preserves, blackberry cobbler - and sometimes, if she was feeling especially perky, she made the BEST fried green tomatoes. In the hot summer, we would go out and pick peas, put em in paper grocery sacks and sit in the living room after lunch, in front of the a/c window unit, watching soap operas and shellin' peas. It was one of my favorite things to do. I'd shell peas until my hands hurt and I LOVED every minute of it. If there were no peas to shell, sometimes we'd share watermelon out on the front porch. Sometimes, it was even a YELLOW watermelon. I had never seen anything like it. I'd also never seen anyone put salt on their watermelon! yuck! I prefer mine as sweet as they come... but I still loved her anyway.

Her brother and his wife (UNCLE JOE & AUNT CEIL (SHORT FOR LUCILLE MAYBE?)) lived next door to her. He raised chickens, had a couple cherry trees, and when I was really little, he also grew sugar cane. As a small child, I would wander through his sugar cane field and pretend it was a jungle. I remember that he'd pull his pocket knife out from the pocket in his overalls and cut me off a piece to suck on. It was a little gritty, so you didn't want to really chew it... but it was wet and sweet, like sugar water. I would suck it till it was dry as a bone. I loved it.

It's those simple, but oh so precious memories that have inspired a desire in me to have a garden of my own.  There is something so 'home' about the idea of a garden. Something so self-sufficient and 'old school' about living off the land and taking care of yourself. It also makes me feel connected, in a small way, to my Auntie.

My garden is a little different from hers though. She was from the old school country garden era (JUST THE BASICS). I added a few extras to her 'tried-and-true' foundation.

Sweet Basil

 Is it sad to think that food can be cute?! This is the most adorable basil I've ever seen! I was re-potting into a bigger container so that it has room to grow.

Eggplant

Ya'll, there is NUTHIN' like eggplant parmesan. I LUV me some eggplant!

Yellow Squash

The only thing better than fried green tomatoes in summer.... is fried squash, or sauteed squash, or steamed squash - heck, ANY kind of squash will do! That's why it is a necessity in my garden.

Watermelon

A summer just wouldn't be a summer if you didn't have watermelon! I plan on having LOTS of watermelon this year! I hear that they're an alkaline food! Oo.... cold watermelon on a hot summer day lounging by the pool. MM Mmm.

Okra

...or as my Auntie used to call it.... OKRIE! Good ol' okrie! I love fried okra... but what I love MORE than fried okra is pickled okra!! And what better time to practice my pickling and canning skills this fall... than with a big ol' bag of okrie!

Lettuce

Gotta have lettuce. I have spinach growing too, but they weren't very photogenic yet. Spinach is really my favorite over lettuce, but a garden wouldn't really be a garden without it. You'd basically just be growin' all the side dishes without the main course. haha.

Tomatoes

And last... but definitely not least.... the queen of the garden... tomatoes. Fried green tomatoes... pasta sauce... salsa... YUM.

I'm also growing parsley and cilantro, but those were just starting to peak. The previous owners of our home must have been garden freaks as well... they were growing mint, onions and rosemary... PLUS the yard has a pear tree, 2 olive trees, and a passion fruit plant. It also used to have a cherry tree, but we cut it down before we realized what it was. (IT HADN'T BLOOMED YET! I FEEL SO BAD.) But the reason we cut it down was because the whole back porch area was grown up with trees and it was one of the ones blocking our view of the pool. What good is a pool if you can't see it?! Eh?

So that's my garden in a nutshell. Hopefully later this summer I will be posting recipes for fried green tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, pickled okra, eggplant parmesan - and any other recipes I can think of to use up all these veggies. Maybe even some canning ideas.

Until next time!