Hard Work Pays Off

Hey everyone!

Hope you're not hungry! So sorry if you are. 

We had a really great dinner a few nights ago where almost all of it came from our vegetable garden. Had I served it with venison, all of it would have been from our yard (green beans were from a friend's garden).

It all started when we decided to cut these loropetalum's down. They grew so fast and had to be trimmed twice a year. Did I say they gave me itchy dermatitis whenever I touched them???

 Mr. Fanatic and I built raised beds. I wasn't sure if veggies would grow here at this point. Oh ye of little faith!

Fast forward to today. In these beds we have 6 tomato plants, peppers, carrots, onions, lettuce and basil.

I planted marigolds on the ends of the beds because I heard they keep bugs away. Haven't seen any : )

purple basil

Oh, except for a bunch of these. 

I mistook this guy on my carrots for a tomato worm and collected more than a dozen & was going to throw them in the trash.

It's a good thing I looked them up on the internet right away, because...

... they turn into these:

Silly me. I immediately put them back on the carrot tops and hope they are ok.

Back to the garden... here's some of the harvest:

In the backyard, I have a little sun where I planted potatoes and one heirloom tomato plant.

So, the harvest went into the frying pan...

And with a little chicken, became dinner! (sorry, no recipe.... I tend to just wing it!) I took this photo after we had eaten...these were just the leftovers!

I've learned in our first year of vegetable gardening and I'm already planning next years garden! Any of you veggie garden pro's out there, feel free to give me advice!

Pam