How does your garden grow?

We moved to Franklinville in September after living through hell to get us there.

Jamie surprised me a few months ago with a newly rototilled spot at the top of our fenced in yard.  "This is the garden," he said to me.

It's huge.

We took great pains to select the appropriate produce to grow.  We ordered seeds from Burpee, Territorial Seed and Stark Bros.  We also bought plants and seeds from our local nursery - Pleasant Valley Greenhouse in Hinsdale, NY.  We are so pleased with our plants.  There were a couple of fruit "trees" that are really just sticks.  We are reluctant to pull them because we were lazy and left others and they've since sprouted at the bottom.  Sticks grow!

We've had a bounty of plants and herbs and now struggle with what to do with them.  For example, radishes.  We have a bazillion radishes.  We ordered one pack of tricolor radish seeds.  We have red, white and purple radishes and each has a bit of a different flavor.  Rather than separate them, though, we try to cut up one of each.

But how many radishes does one need at a time?  How many can you cut up and put on a salad before you want to poke your eyeballs out?  Turns out not many.  So I turned to Cooking Light to find other uses and found two wonderful sides.  The first is a radish slaw that we made with a vinegar base and included yellow peppers and carrots that we served with a wonderful slow cooker bourbon -peach, pulled pork (also from Cooking Light).  Delicious!  The second recipe combined leeks, shallots and radishes.  Saute them in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and serve as a side.  It went very well with a perfectly grilled New York strip steak.  Yum at our house!

We are also using the lettuce for more than just salads (hello, sandwich), but we are making different salads with different toppings and different dressings just to jazz things ups.

We cordoned off the "salad" section.  We put clothesline around the poles so that the peas have something to cling to.

The garden just getting started.

Tomatoes growing like it's their job!

The herb garden which is adjacent to our back patio is ideal.  There are also salad greens growing here.  This photo was taken in a recent rainstorm.  So nice to sit outside and watch the rain and listen to it hit the metal barn roof.

I take a walk out to the garden each day.  I find it enormously relaxing.  It's also wonderful to see what's new.  These pictures are a few weeks old.  I will have to add some new ones, the progress is that stark.