~Beach Broughs~: How does your garden grow?

Last year I had one cherry tomato plant in a pot on my deck. After I killed it I dug a hole in the yard and tried to transplant it. The roots and plant separated from each other in my hands. I shoved them back together, buried it with dirt, and turned my back on it for the rest of the summer. Without my black thumb it flourished and provided us with delicious tomatoes through Sept.

I was more ambitious this year even though I know my tendency to kill plants. Pinterest to the rescue again! I found lots of great tips for a raised bed garden and I bought all the plants from our grocery store. We built the perimeter with concrete blocks, turned the earth, and added fertilizer and soil. I inserted six 36" wooden posts to hold up our green plastic garden fence. I used zip ties to attach the fence to the posts and left one side accessible. Where the two ends met I closed it with strips of velcro for easy access.

My hubby turning the earth

Our garden this year was:

Our garden after about one month

1 zucchini plant
2 green bell peppers that magically grew into pablano peppers
1 cherry tomato plant
1 tomato plant
1 plum tomato plant
2 green bean plants
2 cut onions
2 cilantro plants
1 raspberry stick that would theoretically turn into a bush (in a side plot)

Our raspberry stick

Our results:

Oodles and gobs of lovely zucchini. Probably 10 or so with a few more still growing
7 pablano peppers
a bushel of cherry tomatoes, we were able to keep up with them.
a bunch of slicing tomatoes that tend to outgrow their skins. unfortunately I've had to chuck a lot of them. they rot too quickly for us.
more plum tomatoes than I could ever handle, I'm researching tomato recipes today cause I brought in tons of all three varieties this morning.
a few meals worth of green beans. they are delish but the yield isn't high enough
one onion rotted in the soil the other grew 2 small bulbs the size of bouncey balls
somehow I killed the cilantro. I tried to keep up with them and pop the buds off regularly but they never grew the round flat leaves while I had them, only skiny ones. and eventually it became brown sticks.
I still have one brown raspberry stick.

Our garden now, 3 months later

The plan for next year:

Another single zucchini plant, don't think I could handle more than that.
No peppers, they were tasty but not worth the water for only 7.
Only two tomato plants. Three plants are too many for us. The plum are the most prolific this year but I like the taste of the other two better. So we'll see.
More green beans. Forgot to add I had a lovely lattice in place for it to climb and discovered later the plant was bush beans not pole beans. Oh well. But I would love three or four plants next year.
The onions were an experiment this year, I won't do them again.
I love cilantro but I may only do one next year and not add to the actual garden. I'm thinking the garden didn't mind when I ignored it for a bit but the cilantro was offended.
I will not dig up the raspberry stick for another year or two. Perhaps it will eventually decide to produce something. But I may invest in a real bush next year; I adore raspberries.
Cucumbers. I wanted to try them this year but discovered you have to do them from seed which I was not prepared to try. My kids recently got these "crazy cucumber seeds" in paper from McDonald's at National Night Out. You just plant the paper in the dirt and water it. It sounds like it may survive my black thumb. We shall see.

Future endeavors:

We have 2 random trees in our yard, a giant evergreen planted next to a flag pole and a half dead something near the fence. We hope to remove both of them and where the half dead one is I'd like to plant a fruit tree next year. I'm thinking peach.
We have a great back yard with lots of room for more raised beds. We won't add another next year but perhaps as our family gets hungrier we'll add to it.

Additional Lessons learned:

We planted marigolds throughout the garden between plants and in many of the concrete blocks. They were beautiful and did the trick of keeping away the pests.
Next year I'll need access to the garden from both long sides instead of just one. Weeding became acrobatic at times.
The fence was great; it kept out animals as well as little "helpers".
Will need to research more about getting tomato plants to grow taller instead of bushier. That was a big issue this year but it didn't seem to hurt our harvest.
Watering the garden is therapeutic. I usually went out around bedtime for my kids (7pm) and would be able to reflect on our day as I watered the earth.
Frequent rain is much cheaper and more nutritious for the plants. I always noticed more growth after a rainfall.
Miracle Gro for tomatoes can be poured on all the plants. I did this maybe 3x this summer before the plants began to produce actual vegetables. I think they liked it.
Gardening isn't my favorite activity but it sure is rewarding, especially baking and enjoying the harvest!