World Plant a Vegetable Garden day

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     I am delighted to bring awareness to World Plant a Vegetable Garden Day today!  I have been having so much fun in my own garden this year.  Of course, my garden went in in January, living in desert of Arizona like I do, but for those of you in cooler climates, I'm sure that this is a great time to plant your gardens. 

     This past week, my husband and I took an unscheduled trip to California to visit my family. My mother had taken a fall and the doctors weren't sure if a 99 year old woman could survive some broken ribs.  They under estimated my mom's  strength and determination because she is back at home and doing very well!  It was a very nice visit, seeing her and my other siblings, plus going up to see Alicia and her family.  
     While we were away, Maddy was in charge of taking care of my garden in Phoenix.  She didn't kill too many things, ha ha, and the day before we came home she told me that she thought there was a large zucchini on my zucchini plant.  This is the beast I picked Tuesday morning.  It was so heavy in my harvest apron!

The yellow squash were a little weird. I plucked those to see if it would help the others still on the vine to have more energy. I had to hand pollinate a bit, so I don't know that these got pollinated because of how they look. I did cut open the smoother one and it did have seeds inside, so I used it in the stir fry I made for dinner last night. I also harvested what is probably about the last of my peas, some smaller zucchini, and some carrots. My zucchini plant is huge, my strawberries are still blooming, hopefully I can keep the dog and birds from eating them this time. I have only a few beets still growing and a couple of my tomatoes are turning red! Life is good!
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      Everyone knows that zucchini aren't really great to eat when they get that large, I have some plans for this one that involves dehydrating.  That is a spoiler alert for a future post! 

     For Wednesday night dinner, I threw together a stir fry that included  carrots,   peas and squash from my garden and green onions from my window sill.     

I just love being able to feed my family with the produce I've grown.  For one thing, it tastes so much better.   Since Plant a Vegetable Garden Day was created to feed a hungry world, I'm glad that I can feed my family with it.  What a blessing!  I went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and it was great to say to myself, " Don't need carrots! I already have peas!"  And I didn't buy tomatoes because mine are so close to being ripe that I couldn't bring myself to buy them.  Garden tomatoes are so much better than the ones in the store.

     We were in California just in time to enjoy the fruits of other people's gardens.  There were fruit stands all over the place selling freshly picked strawberries, boysenberries, and cherries.  What a difference being able to taste what ripe strawberries are supposed to taste like rather than the treated ones packed for selling in stores. The fresh strawberries I purchased in California were the same price or less than the normal price in a grocery store and they were so much better!  In Arizona, we don't have as many fruit and vegetable stands like they do over there.  But, I have done a little research and found one or two that I am going to check out.  I am spoiled now by the freshness of the produce and the taste that is 1000 times better! 

      Oh! Here is another future post spoiler alert!  I was able to get hold of 40 pounds of potatoes!  I'll be processing those soon and letting you know the fun I'll be having!  Since I'm getting lots of carrots from my garden now, I will probably can some potatoes and carrots combined.  Those will be great for throwing a quick stew together. 

     Where Alicia and Lindsey live, they are just getting their gardens going.  (We checked out Alicia's garden when we visited this past week!) I hope that they enjoy their gardens as much as I have enjoyed mine this year.  I also hope that you guys will give gardening a try if you haven't been doing it already.  Start with just one or two things and the bug will bite you! Let me know of your success or failures and maybe we can share tips.  I am no master gardener, but I love to try and reap the benefits of the harvest.  
      Here are some other posts we have shared about our gardening adventures:

• ​Regrowing Grocery Store Vegetables
• Easy Practical Urban Gardening Tips
• First Beets From My Garden and a Lovely Salad
• 6 Favorite Recipes That Use Zucchini
• Wood Burned Garden Markers

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