Burl & Dahn in Green Bean Teepee circa 1979

First, I just had to share the photo of my childhood family garden. The photo above is when my younger brother Burl was 7 or 8 years old, and my younger sister Dahn about 5 years old. We grew our pole beans (green beans) on tall bamboo stakes set into a circle and tied together at the top. As you can see, it creates a sort of ‘teepee’ structure.  When the summer finally reached its zenith of temperatures, the teepee was completely overgrown with the lush foliage of the green bean plants. This was one of our cool, shady summer havens! I have fond memories of lunch with my siblings in our little shady retreat.

Fast forward to this year, my first vegetable garden in about 12 years. Since we have been a military family, most of our moves have occured in the summer, making it hard to invest in the work to establish a garden. We have had 11 moves in 15 years! Last October my husband retired from military service and we committed to establishing and maintaining a vegetable garden, similar to the Victory Gardens my grandmother grew. This is also the type of garden my mother taught us to grow when my siblings and I were kids.

Giant "Dwarf" Summer Squash Plants

Medusa Tomato Plants

I greatly underestimated the size plants grow though!  I left 3″ lanes between each of the larger plants like squash, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, and herbs. Either my soil is full of some organic “miracle grow’, some hidden growth hormones, or some special pixie dust, because the garden is not staying within its boundaries! We are being overtaken … one of the tomato plants is taking on a life of its own.

Our 2009 Bean Trellis

The good news is that it is not just the green parts that are prolific. We have a bumper crop of tomatoes. Good thing I loved that tomato casserole I was introduced to by the Alabama Soap & Candle Makers Association last month because I will be looking for 101 ways to use tomotoes!  The zucchini plants are twice as large as the seed catalog said they would be also, and we have already had several meals with tender, young summer squash as the side. Swiss Chard and Cheddar quiche has been popular also, but we are not keeping up with the Swiss Chard growth either!  The cucumbers and green beans are climbing  up their trellises and we have made the first harvest of small new potatoes. Delicious!

Pototoes by the Bushel

One vegetable I was so pleased to be successful growing this year was Carrots. This is the first time I have been able to grow carrots or beets here in the South. And what amazing carrots & beets they are! We are lucky our 8 year old son likes both, because there are a LOT of both.

Garden On Steroids

When my husband picked the first tomato, he brought it to me and said “Here is your $1,500 tomato” (approximate cost to take down and upcycle the fence for the raised bed foundation, the cost of the organic mulch to be hauled in, the initial cost of basic gardening tools & equipment, and seeds & seedlings).  I laughed at him and said to just wait. Once he counts all the vegetables we harvest from this garden over the next few years, it will defray the cost of that first tomato to just pennies. I miscalculated again though. Looking at the load on the 8 tomato plants as of today that defraying to pennies will occur this year, lol!

1. Randy Pembroke Says:
   December 30th, 2009 at 4:07 pm

   Hello i read your site often and thought i would say all the best for 2010!