I am very happy to share with you the start a fabulous new weekly segment that I would like to call, “Your Garden Showcase.”

For those of you who are knew to this site, this past year, I took a giant step and planted my own garden. Since then, I have been drawn to learning the tricks of the trade through others and not through google searches. Don’t get me wrong, I love google, but I’m pretty sure that google has never built it’s own garden. Am I right?! So I’ve become fascinated with real people’s gardens. How are they planted? Are they having the same problems as me? Have they figured out how to solve them? Are they as excited as I am to see everything bloom? What are they planting?

I have become so intrigued with just how your gardens are growing, that I will be sharing a garden a week right here with the rest of you. Because if any of you are like me and want to soak up as much gardening knowledge as you can, you’ll be just as curious to see how gardens across the globe are doing.

Let’s get into the swing of things shall we?

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I love to see the progress of a garden from the starts until it’s given up all it’s fruits and veggies. I love to see how it has progressed and what has thrived. Such is the case with Helene’s garden. Helene, from I’m Living Proof that God has a Sense of Humor, has shared pictures of her garden throughout it’s growing process and I am always so excited to see her lovelies.

She’s only been gardening since last summer but I am just so impressed with how well everything is growing. And I love the neatness of her rows. That’s definitely something I admire and take note of! But please don’t judge me on my hideous rows ;) Anyway, she has a friend who has a fabulous veggie garden and she would often share pictures of it and recipes to go along with what she picked. Helene not only grew curious, but grew enough courage to plant her own!

She has four absolutely adorable children who helped her plant everything this year. They also take turns watering the veggies as needed. Oh how wonderful it must be to have that many helping hands! And those hands are the main reason she decided to grow a garden. Not just to have something to be able to spend time together and be proud of as a family, but to teach them how great vegetables and fruits really taste. Like all kids, it’s not easy to get them to eat their greens, but once they see the fruits of their labor and get to taste how truly wonderful the foods really are, they eat more of them! And she loves to hear them talking about the garden with one another. Oh how fun it would be to hear just what those minds think!

Did you see her “future wine supply”? I mean her grapes? :) I remember as a kid going down to my neighbors and picking some of his grapes. They were so tart but we couldn’t stop eating them! I hope his “wine supply” didn’t diminish too much because of us! But Helene’s grapes! I’m so jealous! So many grapes on so many bunches! I’m sure her little ones love seeing them grow. I’d ask her to move next to me and be my neighbor but then she’ll know why her grapes would go missing! ;) These grapes are what she’s most excited about. It’s her first time growing them and she’s actually pretty surprised that she hasn’t killed them yet! I’m sure you have nothing to worry about Helene because they look fantastic!

I think I was so drawn to her garden when I first saw it because of the huge variety that she has growing. So far she has tomatoes (early girls, cherry and roma), green beans, lettuce, zucchini, yellow squash, strawberries, watermelon, tangerines and grapes.  She also has a peach, orange and lemon tree that are doing well but haven’t flowered yet and probably won’t until next year. I can’t wait to see what they look like next year! I’ve been contemplating planting a peach tree but now that I see that she has, I might just have to be a copy cat! Her strawberries only get about 5-6 ripe berries a week but that’s perfect for the little ones to come by, pick one, and pop it in their mouth! And her watermelons didn’t survive last year so she is so incredibly happy that they’re growing and growing beautifully this year! I am happy for her as well! Watermelons are my fav!

And how stinkin’ lucky is she that she hasn’t had too many real pests! They have cats that keep the mice and birds away and tons of earthworms in the garden to help keep it nice and balanced and healthy. So far, she said the only problem is weeds. Weeds can definitely be overwhelming but she just tries to go out once a day and pull them. I seriously think that it’s such a good idea to do it like that instead of waiting to only do it once a week. You really get to know your garden well and it I think it takes less time to pull them every day then it does to wait and do it all at once.

She’s still learning how to garden… aren’t we all?! And she’s like me, we have a “thing” for checking out other peoples gardens and see how well the plants are doing all along their journey. It’s all just so amazing!

One tip that she provided me with to pass along is this: If you don’t have a sprinkler system (we are lucky and we do!), set up some kind of drip system. Last year she had to hand water everything and that got really tiring. I hear ya! So this year she alternates between hand watering and using a drip system.

And another key tip: Have fun with it! There’s no better feeling than walking out to your garden and picking some fruits and veggies to serve to your family! I completely agree Helene, completely agree!

A very special thank you again to my wonderful garden friend, Helene from I’m Living Proof That God has a Sense of Humor, for allowing me to showcase her fantastic garden. I love how much your garden means to you and to your family and I love how much your children are involved with all of it as well. Thank you!

Do you have a garden that you’d like to show off? Do you know of someone who has a garden that you admire? Let me know… because I would absolutely love to show it off! Just leave me a comment or send me an email and we’ll chit chat away! Happy gardening everyone!

Tags: gardening ideas, gardening tips, small garden spaces, the garden

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