I'm a backyard farmer.
I started a few years after my husband and I married. Our lawn in Northwest Missouri was filled with weeds. It didn't seem like we could ever grow grass. Fed up, I decided we should plow up an 8' x 8' section to make a vegetable garden. It wasn't terribly productive, but it was a start.
After we moved from Missouri back home to Nebraska, my vegetable garden has evolved, somewhat. I first planted at my brother Kenny's house outside of town before we bought our house. My brother and sister-in-law, Sheryl, provided the space and the water, but it was my job to weed and put the water on the garden.
When we moved into our home five years ago, I wanted a gardening plot of my own again. I think it is probably 10' x 10'. I've had a vegetable garden all but one year since we have lived here (last year, I was due to have Benjamin mid-summer). I have learned along the way, what works and what doesn't.
It isn't 100% organic, like I hoped, but at least I know what is going into the foods that I'm growing.
Here is a picture of the first produce of the year, a zucchini. Over the past few years that I have tried to grow plants of the squash family, boring vine moth larvae have destroyed them. I am spraying them with insecticide weekly, deciding that growing zucchini and winter squash is more important to me than growing organic.
My tomato plants, green pepper plants, eggplant, buttercup squash, purple pod beans, and raspberry bushes are growing well. The peas are just peaking through the ground (I know, it's late to be growing peas). My garlic needs constant weeding (as there is no black plastic down through the rows) and the volunteer onions from two years ago are getting large enough to eat. I need to get my onion sets planted this weekend when my husband is home to help with the baby.
My five year-old loves helping in the garden with me. I think it is really good for him to see how food grows.
Are you a backyard farmer, too?
