a little gardening and the best blt sandwich

Gardening has become one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy spending a little time out each day, especially this time of year where the focus is on harvest! This year we expanded our garden even more, and learned some new things again! This year our weeds were out of control, but somehow almost all of our plants still thrived! Our green beans were the one thing that the weeds got the best of, so I’m thankful for kind neighbors and family who have let me come pick their excess! Our garden will forever be a work in progress, and it makes me look forward to the next year of growing each time.  This is our third year planting a garden, but the second one in the same location.  I am keeping notes and keeping track of what works and what doesn’t. I am certainly no expert gardener, but thankfully we have some of the best soil around and for the past two years have had few problems with animals or bugs bothering our plants.

This year tomatoes seem to be our best plant, and they are growing like crazy.

I’ve been canning salsa, pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and just pureed tomatoes over and over! We picked up these tiny little plants at the end of May, and I thought they’d never grow.  Well they grew, and so did tons of volunteer tomato plants throughout the garden.  I pulled some early on, but left a few up, and they all are producing loads of tomatoes now!

Here’s what I learned:

1.  A rototiller would really be a big help with a large garden.  This could really help us keep down weeds between the rows so we can focus on the little weeds around the plants.
2. Utilizing space is important even if you have plenty of it.  Next year we will try to keep things closer together so that weeds have less space to grow and we have less space to have to pull them.
3. Replant greens in August.  Our lettuce, spinach, and kale did great in the beginning but was pretty bitter during the hot days. We can replant in August for a second harvest.
4. Every year will look a little different.

With all the tomatoes, we have been enjoying lots of BLTs! It is so fun to run out to the garden to pick fresh lettuce and tomatoes to make our favorite sandwich.  This year we’ve expanded our BLTs and have added just about anything we can pick from the garden.  So our new BLT includes bacon, lettuce, cucumber, and onion from the garden, and bacon, cheese, and toasted wheat bread from the store!

So we will keep picking tomatoes, canning salsa, and making BLTs for a few more weeks! Then we will enjoy the pumpkin patch that has taken over a good portion of the garden!

What do you add to your BLTs? What have you learned from year to year in your own garden that you can share with me?