Mavis Mail – Zoe From Pennsylvania 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 an awesome garden this summer. Keep them coming!

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Zoe lives in Pennsylvania and is pretty much a rock star when it comes to recipes using real ingredients. She is a cousin of my friend Mama JJ, and she recently sent in some amazing photos of her farm and had this to say:

Hello Mavis!

I was going through some pics and found some garden ones. I remembered you sometimes feature these things on your blog so I thought I’d share…

I’ve been gardening since I was a kid. First I helped my parents, then I got into growing strawberries for 4-H and then eventually had my own little plot on which I grew lots of annual flowers. I loved it.

So when my husband and I got married, we dug up some dirt, and started growing vegetables. Currently we have “the big garden” out back, “the little garden” by the barn, the raised beds, the orchard, and the pea fences and grape arbor.

We’ve had this set-up for 5 years now. We always get a good grape crop but the orchard and the big garden sometimes don’t do very well.

We have no idea what we are doing when it comes to fruit trees so any fruit is a nice surprise. The big garden is situated where there used to be a tobacco barn and we think the soil has some issues because of that. We are working on slowly building it up. Sometimes crops grow great in there but other times, they are complete bombs. Oh well.

The little garden and the raised beds almost always perform quite well! We grow about everything…strawberries, peas, lettuce, spinach, chard, carrots, kohlrabi, rhubarb, asparagus, onions, cabbage, broccoli, kale, peppers, tomatoes, corn, green beans, various dried beans, garlic, cucumbers, squashes, melons, beets, herbs, and I’m probably forgetting some things.

In the one picture you’ll see my chicken house. We currently have 17 birds. 15 eggs a day is a lot for a small family but I love gathering them, washing them up, and giving them to people.

There’s also a pic of my husband plowing the big garden. He’s using his grandpa’s little old John Deere H. I love that thing!

Right now my basement has a grow light in it and I have a bunch of starts growing down there. I can’t plant stuff out as early as you can but in another month I should be able to set out some of the cool weather crops. Can’t wait! I am ready for some summer sun and dirt between my toes!

Well that about covers it!

Thanks! Zoe

To find out what Zoe does with all her fresh fruits and vegetables, visit her blog Whole Eats &Whole Treats. She is awesome, and I wish she was my neighbor.

~Mavis

{Robin from Columbus, Ohio – Garden Photos}

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 & Craft made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.

{Betty & Margo, on the Isle of Man sent in by reader Angie from The Cinnamon Coach}

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.