Kalyn’s Garden Updates
Garden Updates:
Clicking the category Garden Updates anywhere on the blog will take you to all my garden updates, with the most recent updates shown first.
Cooking Tips for Gardeners:
Tips for Freezing Garden Produce:
My Favorite Tips for Freezing Garden Tomatoes, Fresh Herbs, and Vegetables
How to Freeze Fresh Basil (all phases)
How to Freeze Fresh Herbs: Rosemary and Thyme (all phases)
More About Freezing Fresh Herbs: Sage, Tarragon, and Mint (all phases)
How to Make and Freeze Tomato Sauce (all phases)
Making Pistou Sauce for the Freezer (in honor of Julia Child, all phases)
I started gardening with just a little strip of dirt at the back of my yard, but in the spring of 2008 my brother Mark built raised beds for me, which greatly improved the garden and made it easier to maintain. (Thanks Mark, love you!)
Mark also put two skinny herb beds across the top of the garden, since I love to grow herbs. I loved the way these look in late summer when the herbs are overflowing the beds!
In 2009 I underwent some extensive house renovations, and there were some improvements to the garden area, including a new path and new beds along the deck to grow tomatoes.
In 2010 I grew tomatoes in those beds for the first time, including three plants of my favorite green zebra tomatoes.Improvements to the garden area continued in late 2010 when I added a new fence, another herb bed along the fence, a shed for tools, and converted my garden to drip irrigation with weed barrier/gravel around the beds for the whole garden area. I’m excited about these improvements and can’t wait for gardening 2011!
In 2013 I moved to a bigger house where I can host family parties, but there are deer, squirrels, rabbits, and even a few skunks at the new house, so gardening is more of a challenge. In 2013 I tried having a container garden, which was a mixed success. The next two years I didn’t have a garden (sob) and had to get produce from the farmers market.
Now flash forward to 2016 and my amazing brother Mark and his wonderful wife Lisa built me this fantastic new garden, completely enclosed to keep out the critters, and I could not be more grateful of excited to start gardening again!
14 Comments on “Kalyn’s Garden Updates”
I have yet to get the small garden going. I use your recipes on a daily basis. Have you know that I could make a recipe book title kalyns recipes. I use them often. I hope to have a wonderful garden this year. I have one small raised bed and going to have 3 more going by spring. I love a garden! Thanks for keeping me motivated.
Melissa, so glad you are enjoying the recipes. Hope you get to have a garden; it is so much fun!
I love your garden. What a wonderful sense of accomplishment. I have a very small garden after moving from a place with land to a small place with a little back yard. Your recipes I use everyday. Thanks for always sharing your wealth of knowledge.
Melissa, so glad you have been enjoying the recipes, and glad we are both able to still have a small garden. I am so glad to be growing things again!
Hi Kalyn! I am in the process of picking my hers from my garden to start drying. I found your blog via your post on drying vs freezing on BlogHer. Thank you so much for this post and I look forward to reading more of your blog!
Hi Kalyn,
I collect fiberglass bathtubs and
use them for container gardening. They work especially well for carrots and if you put a small, flat rock over the drain hole, you'll never have a gopher problem.
zsiddiqi21, I don't recommend posting e-mail addresses here, but if you want to post the Facebook link I'll see if I know what it is.
Interesting post for this Florida girl. There are certain things we can grow in the dead heat of summer, but our real growing season is about October to May. We've got collards, cabbage, broccoli, kale, tomatoes,and a mess of herbs right now. Then there are the orange, grapefruit, papaya, and anona trees. I love collecting "stuff" to cook from my back yard. And, there is nothing like cooking with fresh herbs.
Miss T, I love that feeling in the spring when you're anticipating your garden! Have fun.
we are just coming into spring and I have planted a b unch of things – excited!
I don't know exactly what the wood was, but I will ask my brother. (Some kind of treated boards, I do know that.)
Hi Kalyn,
You have an amazing blog and i love your garden, i would like to know what wood you used to make the raised bed.
Thanks
Thanks Pavithra. I think I am lucky to live in Utah because I've had very little problems with insects or worms. I know Utah has very few bugs compared to many places. I don't use insecticides, but if I did have a bug problem I'd go to my neighborhood garden center and ask them for an organic solution. Also I have heard that you can spray your plants with a mixture of dish soap and water and that will keep the bugs from eating the vegetables, but I haven't done it.
Last year I did have a funny problem with Quail eating my Swiss Chard, but I put netting over it and that worked. I did visit the garden center to get that recommendation.
Happy gardening!
Hi Kalyn,
You have a Great Blog and i love to browse through your recipes and gardening section. I had a question for you, What do you do to keep insects and worms from your vegetables and herbs? Do you use any Insecticide? I have a vegetable patch and i am finding it hard to keep the creepy crawlies out of it 🙂
Thanks