My Vegetable Garden

When we moved to our new house, I was very excited about this small patch of dirt that was filled with weeds.  I envisioned a beautiful vegetable garden growing there, filling our table with delicious produce all summer long.  Well, it was a lot of work to change that dirt patch into a garden.  I basically hand tilled the entire patch of dirt, and I dug up about a thousand rocks.  I should take a picture of my rock pile to show you.  I also dug up a razor blade, random bits of metal, a spring, a plastic tarp, and an army man.  I guess I should be grateful that anything has grown there, considering the state it was in when we moved in.  So I have attempted to have a few plants: tomatoes, jalapenos, basil, eggplant, green beans, and marigolds.  After planting my garden, I found out that not only am I competing against rocky soil, but also against bunnies with a voracious appetite.  They ate all four of my green bean plants and one of my eggplants before I could even get started.  But I have persisted and now have a little pile of vegetables to show for it.  The jalapeno has by far done the best.  Maybe it is too spicy for the rabbits to eat?  The eggplants have done ok, although most of the eggplants I pick have a little nibble taken out of them.  Then the tomatoes have been growing really well, but as soon as they are close to ripe, either a bunny or a bird eats half of it!  Just half though, as if to taunt me and say "Look at this delicious tomato.  Too bad you didn't get to eat it!"

My garden.  The big open dirt patch area was where I had green beans planted.

Eggplant

Notice how the nice ripe red one is the only one with a bite taken out of it!

Getting close...

We have probably gotten 4 dozen jalapenos from this plant.  I have bags full in the freezer and some drying on the counter.  As David is the only one who eats them, I haven't made much use of our abundant supply.  David however has been putting sliced jalapenos on everything that I cook.

We got one before the bunnies did!

My pickings for the day.

I have been looking for recipes that use up the veggies that grow so well in our garden.  Well, really, just recipes for eggplant and tomatoes.  Poor David, I never make him anything spicy with the jalapenos because I don't like it.  Except I did once make him jalapeno cheddar scones, which were really good!  Even with two jalapenos, they weren't really spicy and all three of us ate them.  Tonight I made a baked eggplant and pasta dish, which used two eggplants and three tomatoes.  Perfect!  I thought it was pretty good, but David didn't love it.  He doesn't always appreciate my adventures in vegetarian cooking.  Unless it is eggplant parmesan.  Yum!

The garden is nice, but these are the best things I have grown :)