A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!
Hi Mavis!
We’ve been doing a ton of work in our yard and garden this year and we’re really pleased with how its all doing, so I thought I’d send you some pictures. 🙂
My husband Ben and I live in Idaho We moved to this house in July 2011. We both grew up with parents who have grown big epic gardens for years and years, so we both knew we wanted space for a good garden. On top of that, Ben has a degree in landscape architecture and didn’t want a boring yard.
After tearing out the sprinkler rotted gazebo deck it has become, as a pergola, one of our favorite places in the yard. Breakfast is so much nicer eaten outside! It served another purpose after we put wire fencing up two sides of it to grow pole beans. Putting the beans here was an experiment, but they have produced really well here for four years now and give an extra bit of shade to the kids play tables later in the summer.
This years first adventurous vine has just reached the top and there are buds everywhere! This year I’m growing a mix of Blue Lake Pole beans and a new to me variety called Rattlesnake. We added a simple fire pit to the space this spring, so that has been fun too.
The garden was planned around a small maple tree in the back yard. We decided we wanted something a bit different than normal, so we placed the beds in a half circle wagon wheel type shape. It is definitely interesting, but we have both agreed that for our eventual next house(if I can ever bear to move) straight lines and rows would be much more practical for figuring out watering. Unfortunately a gopher killed the tree last summer. The garden seemed a bit uncentered after that, so we re-purposed some block and made the space a sandbox for the kids.
Ben plans to start replacing them just a couple at a time starting next year, probably with concrete work. We’ve added several more beds to accommodate bigger space hogs, like the raspberries, corn and squash, but they are mostly semi-raised, just edged in some big cobble.
We’ve had some pretty good garden years and some pretty meh garden years and one year we took completely off, but this is the first year that I looked at the property as a whole and thought, hey, I think we might have finally tamed it. Of course, there’s always work to do! Weeds to pull, hoses to move, grass to improve and mow and use for mulch, general beautifying to do and always always always ideas for more and better gardening.
Thanks for letting me ramble!
Amanda
PS, I’m on instagram as mama_has_hobbies if anyone would like to see further adventures of our chickens and garden and my baking, etc. This time of year it’s a whole lot of garden pictures!
~Mavis
- Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
- Your Pantry Pics – Pictures of your pantry/fridge/cabinets, as well as a short blurb {at the very least} about you and your food habits.
- Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
- Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
- Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
- Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.
You’ll need to send in a Minimum of 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures and the stories to go along with those pictures. Do not send in a couple of grainy photos and a sentence about them. I can’t post that. It doesn’t make for an interesting or informative story.
If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. You can send your submissions to me at onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {spaces removed} and be sure and put Mavis Mail in the subject line. Thank you. I’m looking forward to your submissions.
Go HERE for the official rules.
suzanne says
Thank you for sharing Amanda. My hubs family is from Idaho. You have a wonderful family/fun garden.
Amanda says
Thanks, Suzanne! We sure enjoy it.
Kathy says
Beautiful garden. Thanks for sharing.
Sharon@MLT says
Not so big house, big flat yard with a big garden = my dream.
Amazing progress in three yests.
Sharon@MLT says
Years
Jennifer says
Hey, I “know” her from her mama’s blog! So cool to see this submission from Amanda.
Tammy says
Enjoyed the tour!
Diana says
I really enjoyed your post thank you Amanda. Thank you too to Mavis.
Amanda says
Thanks everyone! And thanks Mavis, for letting me share!