sugar snap peas growth after 1 month

sugar snap peas climbing up the trellis in Box C (1 month)

garden views

photo taken July 16th, 2016

photo taken July 3rd, 2016

The two litlle hills on the right keep getting attacked by squirrels.
No more pumpkin, but we keep replanting watermelon.
(photo taken June 25th, 2016)

photo taken June 25th, 2016

The two little hills on the right are watermelons.
(photo taken June 11th, 2016)

May 30th, 2016

May 30th, 2016

May 30th, 2016

lettuce

This evening's lettuce was harvested from Box C.

We are minting it!

Our mint is flourishing. The two mounds you see at the back are for growing zucchini (left mound is green, right mound is yellow).

red radish reveals itself!

Here's today's red radish harvest and more greens.

RED RADISH

short video of red radish harvest
GREENS

mustard greens

a mix of baby spinach, Swiss chard, light green and red leaf lettuce

video of leafy green harvesting

this was part of our supper today

backyard bok choy

We're having more bok choy for supper today.

stir fried pork and bok choy in a wok (pork not shown)

bok choy / mustard greens

Bok choy and mustard greens harvested this evening, and cooked with rapini and mushrooms. 

bok choy

mustard greens

boiled mustard greens and rapini (2 minutes) and
sauteed with bok choy and mushrooms in olive oil
(add salt, pepper, lemon juice)

Swiss chard and baby spinach

Here's some of our Swiss chard and baby spinach, harvested this morning.

sugar snap peas

Our sugar snap peas are starting to climb up the plastic utility fencing supported by rebars.

rapini - our first harvest

We had steamed rapini from the garden yesterday.
It was mixed in with orange and red peppers for lunch!

chicken-wire fence all around

We decided not to share our food with rabbits, and built a chicken-wire fence all around.

one more box left to finish and laying down mulch

building my garden

Materials

To build eleven boxes, eight trellises, a fence all around, a few tents to protect from frost, some netting to protect strawberries from predators, and some barrels for vegetables that require deeper soil, we used the following materials:

• 2"x6" cedar boards
• 132- 3.5" deck screws (3 screws for each corner)
• a power drill
• a socket wrench
• iron rebars
• plastic utility fence (trellis)
• zip ties (to hold up plastic utility fence)
• chicken wire
• PEX tubing 
• PEX tube fittings and 1" screws (screwed into to corners)
• heavy duty plastic sheet covering (for tents)
• 7 barrels (for carrots, potatoes, parsnips, and leeks)
• compost
• peat moss
• vermiculite
• weed barrier (optional)
• mulch
• straw (to cover soil around strawberries and raspberries)

Our garden has six 4'x4' boxes (A, B, C, D, E, F), two 6'x4' boxes (G, H), and three 2'x2' boxes for our children.

Procedure

We laid down rolls of weed barrier on top of the grass, put the boxes on top, and filled them with a mixture of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. To protect from frost in early spring, we built small tents with PEX tubing. The rebars are also held up by PEX tube fittings.