Vegetable Garden

Yesterday I did a bit of gardening for my mother in law. Theres nothing better than fresh vegetables that you grow yourself.

Many of the vegetables that are bought from a grocery store are actually picked early then made to ripen while in transit. The result of this process makes many vegetables overly hard and flavorless. This is especially the case of tomatoes which are often like eating a flavorless acidic sponge. Unlike some fruits and vegetables, tomatoes do not actually ripen once they are picked. Though they turn red and get a little sweeter when they are picked green, the ripening process actually stops if they are picked early.

Don't be fooled by clever marketing either (i.e. signs at the grocery store that say "vine ripened"). These tomatoes that are sold still attached to the vine are actually cut from the stalk while green, which is why they are just as flavorless as any other tomato in the store.

When tomatoes and other vegetables are allowed to ripen before they are picked it makes a world of difference. The vegetables are much more nutritious and definitely more flavorful.

I started by picking all of the weeds out of the garden bed. Most of which were the herb mint - planted the year before. Mint actually grows like a weed so it can take over a garden pretty quickly. If I grow mint I prefer to do it in an isolated pot.

My mother in law wanted to plant three varieties of tomatoes, two types of peppers, zucchini and rhubarb (which is a hearty perennial that I personally would just plant on the property somewhere rather than taking up space in the garden. It grows much like a hosta, but the leaves are poisonous to dogs so be aware of that).

A lot of what I planted is actually a little too close together. Ideally, most of the plants want to be about 2 feet apart, to give them space to grow. But I didn't have enough space in the garden for that so I planted them much closer together. I'm sure it will be fine but we will see in a few months.

The Finished product.

The first tomatoes should start to fruit in about 62 days. The other variety in about 72. One issue with growing your own vegetables is that everything is often ready to be picked all at once so you can end up with like 40 tomatoes within a very short period of time. This is where salsa and tomato sauce based recipes come in handy :)

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