I’ve always loved gardening and some of my favorite summer time memories from my childhood were spent in my grandparents garden.
Their garden was extensive and full of green beans, turnips, cucumbers, beets, onions, squash, cantaloupe, watermelons, peppers, black-eyed peas, greens, and of course tomatoes. We would spend early mornings canning, pickling, making jellies, salsa, garden vegetable soup and putting away as much as we could. While the afternoons spent shelling black-eyed peas by the bucket full while sitting under the air conditioner were always a treat.
I have my own little garden now. It’s small and doesn’t compare to my Papa’s garden but it’s enough for me. Here is a little look at what’s growing in my little Texas Garden this year….
We’ve had a ton of rain this spring and I’ve got blackberries galore. Yesterday I picked 5 cups of blackberries…. I see a Texas Blackberry Cobbler in my future 🙂
We’ve planted lots of peppers like Hot Banana Peppers, Thai Chiles, Serrano Peppers, and of course Jalapeños. These cute little Jalapeños were the first peppers to appear.
No Texas garden is complete without tomatoes. This variety is the Patio Tomato plant and I’ve found they do best in my garden boxes and pots. Is there anything better that a tomato right off the vine?
I don’t know if it’s true or not but the past two years I’ve planted cilantro all around my tomato plants and I haven’t had any of those pesky FAT GREEN HORNED tomato worms. They say you either love cilantro or hate it… they must hate it!
New to the garden this year is this happy little (well he’s not so little anymore!) Tomatillo plant… I hope we will soon be making some tasty salsa verde together!!
Another new addition to the garden is my strawberry patch.
This box was the former residence of my Sweet Basil and some still reside here with the strawberries… Strawberry-Basil can’t be a bad combination right?
I love when my garden surprises me with a little treat…
We haven’t had many strawberries yet this year and most of the ones we’ve had are pretty small, but I’m hopeful more to come soon.
Does anyone have any great strawberry growing tips? Also, a massive clan of Fire Ants have decided to make my strawberry box their home too and they’ve been helping themselves to my berries. Is there anything I can putout to get ride of them that will not poison the fruit?
As for the rest of my sweet basil… He’s moved to a big terra-cotta pot now.
My kitchen herb garden box has exploded this year….
Now time to take in the first big harvest of the summer 🙂
Happy Gardening!!!
Meals With Mel 
Hi Mel, The rains you’ve had in Texas certainly has made your garden happy, it looks terrific. Your mention of shelling black-eyed peas brought back memories of my mother and I doing the same but sitting in a swing on the back porch at our ranch in Texas. I had a problem with regular ants in my herb garden in Maine and the people at the nursery where I bought my plants didn’t think anything they sold would be safe to use to kill the ants.
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Hi Karen!!!
I’m glad I was able to bring back memories of swinging on the porch and shellin’ black-eyed peas 🙂 It really is a strangely therapeutic task. As for the Fire Ants… that’s what I’ve been hearing too.
Good to hear from you Karen!!
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How beautiful is your garden…and gorgeous photography too:))
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Thanks 🙂
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Your climate has a lot more sun and heat than ours. Blackberries are late August/September for us. I’m so jealous of your basil!
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Yes we do get a little warmer than the Netherlands 😉 I think I was planting my tomatoes and veggies by that last week of March!! Last year, we didn’t get a freeze until late December and my grandpa had fresh tomatoes until almost Christmas (which is really unusual). Have you been to Texas before Stefan?
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Wow Mel, your garden is fabulous! I have two tomatillo plants in my garden this year, and 12 chile pepper plants. Five of those are jalapenos, and the others will be a surprise! They came from a hot pepper seed mix (organic of course) so I have no clue what I’ll get out of those. I can’t find strawberry plants in my neck of the woods, so I am assuming our climate does not do well with them. I look forward to your recipes from this bounty! xo
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I’m loving all the peppers you planted Kathryn. This was my first year to start peppers from seed. The seeds I used (except for the thai chile) actually came from my pepper plants from last year.
Here’s to making lots of salsa this summer!!
Happy Gardening 🙂
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Somewhere I heard that strawberries take a year to grow in properly so the bed will look even better next year! This year is a rough one on all the tasty treats that needs a little bit of cool weather to do really well like peas so maybe that is another factor?
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Thanks for the advice Michelle 🙂 I know it took my blackberries a couple of years to get established and now they producing like crazy!! Fingers crossed for a great year next season !!
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This is an awesome post Melody!! you’re making me want to head out to the yard and start digging and planting!! We have a couple tomato plants and that’s it this year. Everything you’ve grown looks super green and healthy!! I’ve never seen a tomatillo plant before– and I’m a little jealous about all those beautiful berries! Well done! it’s beautiful!
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Thanks Rhonda,
It’s amazing what just a little rain can do of a garden… Then we get two weeks of rain and now I can’t keep up with anything!!
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That’s so fun! we have to water– and right now we are restricted because of the drought! I’m hoping for a rainy year ahead… Happy gardening!! xo
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Your garden is looking excellent! I’ve just harvested peas, radishes and bokchoy…waiting for my carrots and tomatoes 🙂 looking forward to following! Happy growing, and eating 😄
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Thanks!!
You’ve got to love this time of year when all the produce starts coming in 🙂
Cheers to a productive growing season!!
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Beautiful garden photos! We LOVE our strawberry patch (it gets bigger every year) and our raspberry bushes. My garden makes my kitchen so happy! Looking forward to reading more of your great posts…
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Thanks Christina 🙂
I just love all the produce we get this time of year. In the past we’ve always had a Basil Patch where I now have strawberries and now we have a few basil plants popping up from last years seed among the strawberries… I guess it’s a Strawberry-Basil Patch. All we need now is a little balsamic and that combo makes for a nice treat!!
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Your garden is thriving & is looking very well! keep up the good work! 🙂
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Thanks Sophie!! We’ve had a ton of rain here recently in Texas and all the plants are loving it!! Especially the blackberries and tomatoes 🙂
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We have had a lot of rain recently too, here in tiny Belgium! But I want sunshine now! yesterday, we harvested the 1st lemon cucumber!
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Congrats on the first lemon cucumber!! As the Beatles sing… Here comes the sun!!
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hahahahahaha! I hope so!
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