Mavis Mail – Heidi From Vancouver Island Sends in Garden Photos

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!

Check out the incredible garden Heidi from Vancouver Island is growing:

I am a long time gardener. We live on a 1/2 acre and have super sandy/gravelly soil, so after fighting with this for years, we started building raised beds. My husband put in automatic watering with soaker hoses and some mini sprinklers, so it is nice to not have to worry about watering all of the raised beds located all over the yard. The garden in the front is doing well because of our decision to use fall rye for the past 3 years, so we will leave this one as an in ground garden. I can’t believe what a difference it has made to the soil to put the fall rye in.

We have a fairly large family {5 kids} and are growing our own produce because we love to garden, but also because it costs a lot to feed 7 people with organic produce.

You can see from how dry the lawn is that we have very poor soil and a lot of trouble keeping things watered. This is one of the main reasons we started making raised beds.

Pictured above is the back garden that we converted into raised beds. There is a fence because we have very friendly rabbits in our neighborhood. Our newest friendly creature is a raccoon that ate all of our Beauty Plums! We have a live trap, and have relocated 3 raccoons this spring, but the last one doesn’t seem to want to go! In this bed, we have lemon cucumbers, spaghetti squash, onions, leeks, celery, peas, bush beans and Warba potatoes that I am going to harvest any day now! Surrounding the garden is a jungle of raspberries that love our soil {I think that they are the only thing that loves our soil}. This was an excellent year for raspberries!

We built some raised beds 2 years ago so that we could have asparagus {which is the big fern looking thing in the second bed}. We also have brussel sprouts just coming up in the closest bed, and beyond that there are zucchini, carrots and peppers. On the left is my herb garden, and behind that is a garden that my girls have planted.

Our raised beds, phase 2 have New Zealand Yam, Swiss Chard, and in the back that big plant is Jerusalem Artichoke. Beside it some kale that is just getting big enough to harvest. The Jerusalem Artichokes have been banished to this planter that is made out of cement because I hope that it will contain them. They took over in the last place that I had them, and I have spent many hours digging them out… I am still digging them out! The garbage can with the piece of plywood is full of my comfrey tea that is almost ready to be used as a fertilizer.

This is my most exciting plant of this year…Watermelon! I put trays under the pots yesterday with the hopes that more access to water will result in bigger watermelons.

This is the garden in our front yard that we will keep as an in-ground garden. In it we have potatoes, tomatoes, beets, cabbage and pole beans. We also put some everbearing raspberries in here as well. The big bush in the middle on the right hand side is a huckleberry bush. It was there when we cut down the trees and made the garden, so we decided to keep it because we love huckleberries! The beets are being attacked by a leaf miner bug, but I can’t decide whether I should do something about it or just leave them.

These are my strawberry beds, and my neglected flower garden in front!

The spaghetti squash plants have gone crazy! I tied them onto poles so that they would have more room, and they must have about 10 squashes per plant. One of the poles broke from the weight of the plant, so it’s kind of a mess back there!

We also have a bunch of fruit trees, some more berries like blueberries and currants, and have recently planted blackberries and kiwi. This year I am trying some winter gardening. I showed you the Brussel sprouts, and have also started cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and a flat of peas for a fall crop.

And, that is my garden! Thanks again for the inspiration, Mavis,

Heidi

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.

Go  HERE for the official rules.