How does your garden grow?

This is my third or fourth year with a garden.  I have to admit, I love it....but this year I just wasn't on my "A" game.  I'm not sure why.  I started out strong.  I had my garden in at a great time and even had Matt put a fence up around in to keep out those pesky rabbits.  I put newspaper down around most of my plants and covered them with about 6 inches of grass clippings to deter weeds.  My parents do that to their garden and it works great! 

The problem fell when I didn't put the mulching down in the remaining 1/3 of the garden (which was my onions).  Jaden "helped" me plant onions this year...and many were planted wherever his little hands led him.

I loved that.

I loved looking in the garden and seeing the onions that were planted by my little guy.

However, it seemed like a lot of work to put down the mulching around a LOT of little onions that were zigzagged all  over the garden so I decided to forgo it. 

Bad idea.

When I tell you the weeds took over....they REALLY took over. 

This is where I seemed to be off my "A" game.  In the past the kids and I would be out there tinkering every few days.  This summer we were not...for whatever reason...we let it slide.

On top of that my grape tomato plant looks like I took on a life of its own and has sprawled across nearly half of my garden.  I hate to admit it, but I'm a girl that likes a neat and tidy garden...and between the weeds and the out-of-control tomato plant my garden was not the joy that it should have been this summer.

Sooooo......lesson learned.

Next year I plan to plant potatoes (we had our best crop ever this year), onions, basil, and peppers.  Those are the things we love the most, use the most, and honestly require the least amount of upkeep. 

I still love gardening, but next year I'm going to go with the K.I.S.S. method....Keep It Simple Stupid!

"Gardening requires a lot of water...most of it in the form of perspiration!"

--Lou Erickson