Southern Virginia Garden Tour – Vegetables, Kids, Pigs and Chickens!

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 these photos and the stories behind them Amanda from Virginia sent in:

Last spring/summer we decided to turn our bare backyard into our little “Half-Acre Home on the Range” and I wanted to share some of the pictures of our journey. Our little backyard garden and farmyard is a labor of love for our little family. My husband is the builder. He built our garden boxes, chicken coop, and pig house/pen. He leaves it to the girls and I to fill them with living things! I am really so thankful he goes along with all of our crazy ideas!

This was our very first gardening adventure. Which seems kind of silly to me. My dad is a farmer, and I grew up on a farm, so I really have no idea why it took me so long to start a garden!

There was not a lot of planning this first year. My focus was on letting the girls enjoy and be part of every moment. They helped dig in the dirt, and I let them plant the seeds. Naturally, the first harvest belonged to them 😉 I loved that they wanted to be outside, right beside me, breathing fresh air and growing fun things.

My big girl named our garden the “Happy Foods” Garden, so we had to make a sign…of course!

It was so much fun watching new things pop up in the garden!!

Then, we talked our guy into chickens!!! He worked hard to build us the cutest little coop.

Our big girl looked out over our backyard at the end of the summer and said that she loved our little home because it made all of our dreams come true 🙂 As a mom, that was one of the best moments!

We had lots of rain, so the garden, the bugs, and the grass got a little out of control! Throughout the summer we harvested some squash, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, radishes, lettuce, swiss chard, and a few other things.

My tomato plants ended up with some kind of disease, and I didn’t plant nearly enough beans…I still have a great deal to learn! But we had such a blast together. ~ And the girls were always looking for a chance to play in water 😉

And we added a pig! I have always wanted a little pet pig!! Someone in our community needed a new home for her pot belly pig, so the girls and I brought her home! 🙂 It was love at first sight!! (And she likes kale!)

Once again, our guy went to work building our dreams. She has her own little pen to root around in the mud, and we hung her some bunting. Every girl needs a little bunting.

Our July babies have finally started laying eggs, and it’s so exciting to check the nest boxes each day! The girls have to take turns carrying the eggs back to the house. Chickens are just awesome!

Everything seems so brown and dead this time of year, but we do have a few garlic shoots from the fall popping up!! It’s so fun to see the garden still alive through the winter!

We enjoy our little backyard farmyard so much! We are ready to dig in the dirt again and are preparing for spring! We hope to have a bigger, better garden this year. I have already received my first order of seeds, and I ordered a set of grow lights for myself for Christmas, YAY!! 🙂 I write a little about our backyard adventures and share pictures of our day-to-day at mychaosandcoffee.

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.