Mavis Mail – Tammy From Western Michigan Sends in Her Garden Pics

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!

~Mavis

Hi Mavis!

I’m sending along pictures of our garden {we got to see Tammy’s awesome pantry HERE}.

We’ve lived in western Michigan for 11 years now and this is our 5th year gardening. After gardening at a community garden for two years, we looked for a more economical way to garden closer to home and settled on our side yard! Our backyard is completely shaded all day long, otherwise we would have planted in the back.

We’re fortunate that our next door neighbors like our garden, since their driveway is right by the garden. In fact, I’ve often looked out and seen them giving tours of our garden to their visitors. (Haha.)

We grow a variety of things, and we eat lots of fresh vegetables during the summer. However, our primary reason for gardening is to preserve for the winter. I spend a lot of time canning!

This year we’re growing green and wax beans, a variety of peppers (hot and sweet), a few herbs, tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, peas, potatoes, and zucchini. This is the first year we’ve grown potatoes and we’re waiting to see how well (or not!) they grow! This year I did a little research and discovered that you can grow zucchini in a tomato cage. It doesn’t train itself up the cage, you have to pull the stalks and leaves in as it grows, but it saves a lot of space to grow it this way. We have four raised beds and hope to eventually build the rest of the garden out in raised beds.

My husband is the primary gardener, which is kind of funny because he didn’t want anything to do with the garden when I first started talking about growing one. But now he plans, plants, waters, and weeds. I help with the picking and then can and freeze!

There you have it! Our little garden in a small Midwest yard! It works for us. 🙂

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.