Vegies in every corner

Rising prices of food have me slightly freaked out. We have a large raised bed garden but it is nearly full with onions, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. The onions will come out soon giving me more space for squash and the peas will never really mature because they came up too late. They may add some nitrogen to the soil though.

I got to thinking about where I could put more vegetables in. I have some blank spots in my garden and a sprinkler system. Why not put in vegies instead of flowering annuals?

Saturday Jake and I had planting day. I taught him how to dig a nice hole, gently take the plant out of the pot and tenderly pull the roots apart so they can spread and grow. We put peppers in every smallish blank space we could find. Then I tilled a largely unused area where things had gotten out off hand. I tilled in some compost and taught Jake how to make hills for zucchini. He had fun making the holes and putting the seeds in. We "tucked them into bed" and watered them in.

I noticed that I had a downspout near this are that used to have a rain barrel. I moved it to be closer to my raised bed garden (although it leaks, that will be another story I am sure). I bought a heavy duty trash can with a lid and cut a hole in the top for the down spout. We had a heavy rain last night and saw that it was full. I think I may drill some over flow holes near the top so the top will not pop off. Now I have three water collection areas. I would love to have a huge tank but I can't seem to get my husband to sign off on that one.

Now we have tomatoes, peppers, New Zealand Spinach, squashes, cukes, onions and eggplant. We also have peach trees, pecan trees, plum, pear, apricot and apple (they are not producing yet, bummer). One our screened porch I have a lime tree and two small Meyer lemon shrubs. Even if it does not help with the food bills, I am hoping we will have safe organic vegies throughout the summer.