Peapod Farm

The primitive-yet-functional veggie garden.
It's set way down in our backyard where we have room for it.

We planted the vegetable garden, a.k.a. Peapod Farm, a few weeks ago, on a very hot weekend. I hadn't touched the garden since the fall, and it required some attention.  A lot of raking and cleaning out was in order. After suffering tiny ant attacks, sweating gallons of sweat and raking my arms off, it was ready to plant. It took several hours to get it back to a reasonable shape, but so far, it's functional.

We planted our usual vegetable suspects in our four square plots. I follow, somewhat loosely, the "Square Foot Gardening" concept, with the goal to cut down on weeding and keeping everything compact. This year, we planted four types of tomatoes (can you tell we like tomatoes?): Better Boy and Celebrity varieties for larger tomatoes, and Sweet Olive and yellow grape tomatoes. (Big Girl is a tomato addict and loves little tomatoes.) We also planted Bush Pickle Cucumbers, Italian Large Leaf Basil, Zucchini Elite Summer Squash, Classic Eggplant, Red Night Sweet Pepper and Bush Green Beans. Yes, all that in those four boxes. I would plant more, but alas, I only have room for so much, right?

Off to the right side of the photo, you'll see big leaves -- that's rhubarb. It's actually rhubarb from my late grandparents' house, which actually originated at my grandfather's Pennsylvania farm where he grew up. I thought my husband killed it a few years ago, when it was planted where my former veggie garden was and he ran it down with his mower. But it sprung up again -- hubby, who loves rhubarb calls it a weed! -- and I moved it and here it is, surviving, a little piece of my family history. I love it for that.

Our little garden serves us well, and I jokingly now call it Peapod Farm, since in my dreamland I live on a farm. We get a suitable amount of produce from it, cutting down our vegetable costs each summer and allowing us to indulge in more produce than usual. I would love a larger garden, but that will come in time. Despite our prolific planting of tomatoes, we don't have any to can -- we eat every single one in this house.

I would like a "cute" garden, but right now we don't have much cuteness. We have a small net fence around it to keep out the deer, who like to visit for a midnight snack. And that white fence is front is actually an old thing my husband made for around our Christmas tree when Big Girl was little. It serves as a way to gate off the front. It's starting to get a little rotted, but it still works. Ideally, I would like a lovely little white fence around the whole thing with a charming gate and arch, but fences are an unnecessary expense in our grand scheme of things right now. Instead, I'm opting for function vs. fashion.

(But I do have a pig. Not a real one. A fake one. See the little statue in the middle of my garden? That's my pig. Petunia Pig of Peapod Farm. She's the guardian of the whole operation. I'd really like a sheep too. And another sheepdog -- a real one. And possible a chicken or two. Possibly fake or real. But I digress.)

As far as upgrading my garden "cute" factor? As I always say, a girl can dream, can't she? When it's time to afford some fashion to add to my function, I will. Here are some photos of veggie gardens in which I find inspiration, courtesy of my Pinterest board "In the Garden"....

Susan Branch's picket fence garden.
I love Susan Branch! Everything she does is cute.

Source: susanbranch.com via Kellie on Pinterest

Favorite move garden ever!
From "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep....
I read somewhere that most of it was fake.
I still love it though, particularly it's pretty style and the teepee tomato cages.

Source: lamaisonfou.blogspot.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I would love to work in this space. It's inviting!

Source: homesteadrevival.blogspot.com via Kellie on Pinterest

A proper fence to keep out deer!

Source: sunset.com via Kellie on Pinterest





This is so cute but not practical for my yard or to keep critters out!



Source: thischickcooks.net via Kellie on Pinterest

The Posie Gets Cozy garden. Everything she does is adorable, including her first veggie garden.
I love following her adventures with this. She planted a lot from seed.
There are even better photos of the garden growing on her blog right now.

Source: rosylittlethings.typepad.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I hope your veggie gardens are coming along.

Thanks for visiting Peapod Farm!