First Full Season (2017) Recap

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Lao Tzu

The summer of 2017 was my first full season of attempting to grow my own food.  It was one giant experiment as I had never tried growing more than 10 plants at once before nor had I ever had this much space.  I tilled the ground, built my own drip irrigation system, threw a bunch of seeds in the ground, and tried to keep the weeds at bay while the vegetables grew.  Here's what happened:

Before doing anything, this is what the yard looked like (2016):

Utilities marked and tilling underway (2017):

 I bought a small, electric tiller that works surprisingly well and since it's electric there isn't much maintenance to do on it.

Drip irrigation system being built and seeds being planted (April 2017):

Plants are growing (June 2017)!!!:

...and growing (End of June 2017):

First of the harvest: radishes, chard, and beets (End of June 2017):

Yes, I definitely thought the chard was a beet (I still can't tell them apart) which is why I pulled the root of it up, it was delicious nonetheless.

Kale is so easy to grow, I love it (July 2017):

It's also pretty cold hardy, doesn't need much attention, mostly takes care of itself and tastes great.

Everything is still growing, there are some vegetables among the weeds (Mid-July 2017):

...getting taller and taller every day (End of July 2017):

Start of the Squash Harvest (End of July 2017):

Potato Harvest (August 2017):

These potatoes were so tasty and flavorful!

Even the broccoli grew (August 2017)!!!

You really have no idea how excited I was that the broccoli grew, I love broccoli!

The sugar beets grew too (End of August 2017)!!!

Fun fact: Sugar beets were once the main crop grown in Longmont (this town was once full of nothing but farmers), there's even an abandoned sugar beet mill in town where these beets would be turned into table sugar.  As you might expect, these beets are very sweet and tasty!

Wheel Barrow O' Squash (End of August 2017):

People didn't believe me when I told them I literally had a wheel barrow full of squash.

...still growing and growing and growing (September 2017):

Carrot and Tomato Harvest (Beginning of October 2017):

Kale, Chard, Spinach and Melon Harvest (Beginning of October 2017):

Beets and Tomatoes (Beginning of October 2017):

At the beginning of the season I had no idea if anything I planted would even come to fruition.  I was amazed at how easy it was to get these plants to grow in the soil that had been neglected for who knows how many years.  I couldn't have been more surprised at my bounty from this first year especially when you consider that I really had no idea what I was doing (I still don't).  In the end, I had a ton of fun with it, the food was extremely tasty as well as plentiful and I was more determined than ever to take what I learned, apply it to the next season, do some more experimentation, and see what happens in the 2018 growing season!