Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Does Your Garden Look Like This After Vacation?

Every year, I look forward to my garden. Tilling, planting, harvesting, watering and even weeding.

My excitement begins after the garden has been tilled in the Fall. I carefully harvest the seeds that I can, place them in paper bags since I don’t want moisture to ruin them and pack them in the “Winter at Uncle Erics” box since we turn off our heating, I don’t want them to freeze.

And then I sit and wait with anticipation for Spring.

Except this year, the excitement was short lived. In fact, it ended before it even got started.

This year, I planned a trip to Newfoundland in August so I moved our Farm visit from August to July. Therefore, since we weren’t going to be here to enjoy the fruits of our labour, I didn’t plant half the garden I normally would. That meant, no garlic, lettuce, spinach or cucumber.

I did plant beans, peas, beets and cherry tomato plants. All perfect vegetables that The Kids can grab right off the plant. The chives, tomatos, green onions and broccoli plants were volunteers from my compost stash so I just ignored them.

A few days before we left, I made sure that I took out every single weed. The garden plot was so clean that you could have eaten off it. Well, not exactly but you get my drift. I was so confident that I would come home to 2 foot plants and 1 foot weeds.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I came home to this…

Garden Full of Weeds

Hidden in that mess I found a beet bigger than my hand, peas that are almost ready, beans ready for the eating (we had them last night with salmon on the BBQ) and cherry tomatoes that should be ready right before we leave again at the end of August.

As for the weeds, in a few hours they were history and in return, I had the perfect topic for a blog post. Life is good.

Do You Have a Garden?

46 thoughts on “Does Your Garden Look Like This After Vacation?

  1. Tom

    I always wonder what I am going to find in our garden when we return from vacation. I am either disappointed that nothing has grown or stunned at how the garden looks like a jungle. We have a watering system but In the UK the weather is pretty unpredictable (usually) so it’s hard to program it for both a heatwave and torrential rain for two weeks.
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  2. Sandy

    LOL!!!!!!!!!! I’m laughing because that’s what my garden looked like at one point. Both the veggies AND the weeds were huge! I had to figure out what was what. Note to self…put up little signs next year to help me tell what’s what 🙂 As for my flowers after vacation…they looked like a crispy haystack!
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  3. All Natural Katie

    Beautiful! I love volunteer plants from compost. I have about 6-10 tomato plants that came up out of nowhere in the garden (that is below a black walnut tree, which is supposed to be toxic to tomatoes).

    I really like your comment about growing vegetables (and fruits) that kids can pick themselves. I will keep that in mind for next year as my little toddler will be at least 2 years ago and hopefully more involved in the garden.
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    1. Sarah Post author

      Dear All Natural Katie,

      This was the first year that I had so many volunteer plants. In fact, I should have thinned out some of my tomato plants because they’re everywhere and taking over the other vegetables. I’ll solve that next year but making the garden bigger. Everyone wins!

      Thanks for stopping by The Zoo.

      Besos, Sarah
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  4. Rene

    Mine looks worse…and I haven’t gone anywhere! Too bad the deer have eaten only the plants I wanted, and not the weeds!

    Reply
  5. DARLENE W

    My garden consists of two cherry tomato plants that are in planters. Hubby and I have had 1 tomato each so far

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  6. KD

    I don’t have a garden, but did growing up. The resilience of weeds is truly admirable, albeit infuriating! 😉

    Reply
  7. kristen visser

    that is so awesome!!! I have always wanted my own garden! I have been holding off on it because i know it takes a lot of work and right now I am pregnant and dont really want to take that on right now but somewhere in the future (maybe next year) i will definitely have one

    Reply
  8. Florence C

    We were gone for most of July and had dried weather. There were a tons of weeds covering everthing that my husband planted. Enjoy your trip to Newfoundland.

    Reply
  9. Kayla @ TheEclecticElement

    We have a garden that looks more like an overgrown jungle and the sad part? We haven’t gone on vacation. LOL It sounds like despite not planting all you wanted because of your vacation you still got quite a bit of bounty! There’s nothing like picking fruits or veggies right off the vine and enjoying them, that’s for sure 🙂
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  10. Karen E. Hill

    I dont take a vacation so it works out for me. Its a weekly, sometimes daily chore to weed the flower beds as well as veg garden

    Reply
      1. kathy downey

        Thanks,If I lived closer I would take you up on that offer but I am over yonder in Newfoundland…Cheers have an awesome weekend

        Reply
        1. Sarah Post author

          Dear Kathy,

          We missed the boat on visiting you. Literally.

          We were scheduled to visit Newfoundland tomorrow but ferry rides, accommodations and dog boarding made things confusing. Hopefully next year.

          I’d love to connect if you’re up for it (journeysofthezoo@hotmail.com).

          Besos, Sarah
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  11. Laurie P

    We skipped on the garden this season….I just had other stuff to deal with. Next summer tho, it’s on. I’m looking forward to having my little girl help…and learn.
    At my parents house, my younger siblings and I would go out back (they have a huge yard), and play a bit of baseball. More of me hitting the ball and them doing the catching. We have a rule that if the ball goes in the gardens, you have to grab two weeds when you go to get it…..we usually make a noticeable difference when we are done playing lol.

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  12. Soozle

    Haha! Oh my!! That is amazing 😀 I garden myself and I know my own garden went from being pitiful to massive in what feels over night – it is amazing what a few really hot days will do for a garden to make it flourish 🙂

    Enjoy the harvest!

    Reply
  13. HEIDI C.

    What crazy growth you had! We have had pretty good success so far with our garden. We had tons of radishes, beans and peas and now the corn, carrots and potatoes are coming. Just amazing!

    Reply
  14. Ali P

    My garden usually just looks like a big pile of weeds. This year, we decided not to plant one and moved our gazebo where the garden was. A lot less maintenance this way. lol

    Reply
  15. Nena Sinclair

    Where I live now, I don’t have room for a garden, I miss that! There’s nothing better than fresh, homegrown fruits and veggies! The only thing I have are a few herb plants in little pots.

    Reply
      1. Nena Sinclair

        Yes, I’ve tried those, but the problem is the kids in my neighborhood are not respectful of other people’s property and they ruined them 🙁

        Reply
          1. Nena Sinclair

            Yes, it’s very sad, most of the kids here have absolutely no parental supervision. I try to watch out for the little ones, and there are a few other good people here that do the same, but I worry about what’s to come for these kids.

  16. DARLENE W

    yes it does and so does my lawn, after all the rain we have had in the past 2 weeks, they are a real mess

    By the way, your link to “HALLOWEEN” doesn’t work, for me any way

    Reply
    1. Sarah Post author

      Dear Darlene,

      Glad that I’m not the only one with a “garden with a mind of it’s own”.

      As for your comment about the “Halloween” link, was it linked to a picture at the bottom of the post under “You Might Also Like”? I can’t find a link to any Halloween post in the body of this post. Thanks for letting me know!

      Besos, Sarah
      Sarah recently posted…I Should Lie More To My KidsMy Profile

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  17. Elizabeth Matthiesen

    pretty good camouflage for the plants I’d say – maybe being hidden in the weeds protected them from pests and prevented too much evaporation? I once went back to England for 4 weeks at Easter & then couldn’t mow my lawn when I got back to Germany, the grass was that tall! My little old hover mower protested and just flattened the grass. My neighbour took pity on me and lent me her electric mower which soon cut it back down to size 🙂

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