Home Gardening Makes Free Vegetables

I have no awesome gardening skills, but I do have a backyard garden.
Gardens make free vegetables.
Free vegetables make me happy.

Now if the suburban groundhogs and city deer will leave it alone, I'll be in business.

Wife and I are on our third-annual backyard garden. We don't grow anything too crazy, but we do grow vegetables we can use or store up. We started getting our first bounty a few weeks ago.

Tomatoes
This year we have three types of tomatoes: romas, better boys, and Cherokee purple heirlooms.

Romas everywhere!

 

I love the taste of a home-grown tomato, but I am not a snob when it comes to variety. The romas are producing far more than the others types, but they are also smaller. The better boys are pretty average and consistent, and the Cherokee purples are BIG and meaty.

Peppers

This year we're growing jalapeno peppers, green bell peppers, banana peppers, and poblanos.  

Jalapeno peppers!

 

Wife makes pickled jalapenos that rock my face off. Had I tasted her pickled jalapenos before we got married, we probably would have skipped our wedding and eloped months sooner.

 

Does this look like a poblano to you?

It doesn't look like a poblano to me, but that's what the sign called it when we bought the plant. Whatever it is, it tastes good.

Red Cabbage
We've never grown red cabbage, so I'll let you know how it works out.

If we get sick of buckets of slaw, I'll have to find other uses for these big heads of magic.

Carrots
Also a first: carrots. In cartoons, critters and people can just yank on a carrot top and pull the whole thing up out of the ground. I have learned this is a lie.

Look at this skinny thing! I dug this guy up as a test, and it was not easy. I nearly broke it. It sure was sweet, though. Mmmm.

Okra
I like a little fried okra. I LOVE a lot of fried okra.

When it comes to okra, bigger is NOT better. This one is a little small still, but I don't let them get much bigger. Eating a foot-long okra is like eating a couch cushion. Or a log.

Also...
A few beans, one strawberry plant, and a bunch of herbs round out the rest.

 Not bad for a little backyard garden!