We have been spending the last few weeks with dreaming of our 2017 Vegetable Garden Plan. We’re finally putting our plans to work. Dusty prepped the garden for a new season of fresh vegetables in our back yard. A few years ago he built these awesome raised garden beds and then we expanded our garden space by planting right into the ground. We plan to build additional raised garden plans in the future and by we, I mean Dusty.

Here is what our gardens looked like the year Dusty built them- they were in their glory with a fresh stain.

This year he took a couple of hours to prep the garden space by tilling the areas and then topped them off with compost dirt, some vermiculite and organic fertilizer. We’d like to think we’ve grown a little wiser with age so he also inserted the cages into the ground right away. In years past, we have put off adding the cages until it’s almost too late.  Then of course we risk breaking off some of the plants in order to get the cages positioned correctly.

We purchased all of our starter plants at Valley Veggies this year.

Valley Veggies is a 5th generation vegetable stand and they are chemical free! Click to read more about how have successfully sold garden vegetables and plants for 5 generations. We were there strictly for the chemical-free starter plants for our garden. According to their Facebook Page, they also offer pick-your-own herb and flower bunches. Additionally, they sell certified omega-3 eggs, a variety of natural milk, ice cream, yogurt & other dairy products. For the meat-eaters, they offer broiler chickens as well as naturally raised pork, beef, elk and buffalo products.

Valley Veggies in Lake Crystal, MN

So many tomatoes to chose from!

Beautiful purple basil

We love to can salsa in the fall so we would definitely classify our garden as a ‘ salsa garden ‘.  In addition to salsa, we have plans to can the following:

• tomatoes
• tomato juice, or as well like to call it: Bloody Mary Mix. It was amazing and SO much better than store bought mix.
• tomato, onion & pepper mix for pastas and such
• pasta sauce

Vegetable Garden 2017

Here is a list of everything we planted this year. I provided links where I could in case you’d like to know more about the plants.

• Banana Pepper
• Jalepeno (early)
• Jalepeno (late)

Pepper Plants

• Big Bertha x 2
• Flamingo x 2
• Purple Beauty x 2
• Yummy Mix x 1
• Emerald Giant x 1

Tomato Plants

• Sun Sugar Cherry x 1
• Black Cherry x 1
• Sunrise Cherry x 2
• Goliath Pear Roma x 1
• Rocky Roma x 1
• Amish Paste Roma x 1
• Black Krim x 1
• Pineapple x 1
• Cherokee Purple x 1
• Goliath 65 x 1
• Amana Orange
• Mortgage Lifter

Herbs

• Lemon Basil
• Thai Basil
• Purple Basil
• Dill
• Garlic Chives
• Rosemary
• Thyme

In the past, I have done very poorly with my basil. Terry gave us tips on how to harvest the basil without killing off the stems. This mens instead of taking the stem off the plant, simply cut it off and leave part of the stem so that it has a chance to grow back! We also planted directly into the ground this year rather than pots as in previous years.

Terry also suggested planting the rosemary into a pot that we can take indoors, as it’s a slow-growing plant, especially in this climate.

We’re really excited about our garden choices this year!

Do you plant a garden? What are your favorite garden plants?