The Kitchen Garden

I’m slightly obsessed with our garden.  It flat-out changed my life.  I’ve always had gardens and small vegetable plots with a few tomatoes and vegetables, but being able to get almost all of our produce from the backyard was different.   I had no idea how much we’d actually be able to harvest from it, and just how much relaxation it would bring me.  It’s a different way of living. 

{August through October was tomato insanity.  When it got really crazy, we could pull at  least a basket of veggies out a night.  Sometimes even 4 or 5.  Nutty}

When it’s warmer, I wake almost every morning and take a little walk through the garden, usually barefoot.  It feels like the best exhale ever.  It’s calming and refreshing and makes me believe my life is slower than it is.  I savor that time, often with one of my little guys in tow.   On Saturday mornings, I go for a (very quick!!) early run and end up in the garden for a couple of hours, tying up vines, weeding, and snapping up a few veggies while the boys play outside with me.  We’re done before it gets hot and have the whole day ahead of us.  

When I get home from work, I head right out to the garden with a kid and a bunch of baskets and we pick things and explore.  It’s my favorite time…

In the evenings, we sit in the Adirondack chairs and talk and hang out before or after dinner…  and on great nights, we eat cheese and have wine too.    

My helpers are never far away…

When designing our garden, I knew that I not only wanted vegetables and flowers out of it, but also a place to go into and enjoy.  Somewhere to be.  Something to actually walk through… an outdoor room of sorts.  Something big enough the boys could run though and play in.

To come up with the right esign, we worked with my childhood friend, Danylo Kosovych of Organic Edible Gardens.  (To see the design, click here)  I talked with him recently and he’s booking for Spring now if you’re in the VA/ DC area.  We couldn’t have done this without them.  He worked in a cutting garden with hydrangea, peonies and roses near the side of the house so not only do we have lots to eat, I have pretties to bring in all the time:

I love being in my kitchen and looking right out the windows to the garden…

…and being able to grab vegetables and herbs on a whim.  It’s an extension of our home and for me, the most satisfying aspect of it.  As hard as we’ve worked to get the interiors of our house right, it’s really the connection it has with the outdoors that I love about it the most.  Whenever I come home, I can’t wait to get outside.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos and I’ll be back for a Part II, sharing how and why we did certain things, how the deer didn’t eat everything and of course, photos of some of the arrangements and foods I’ve made from it.  Have a good one!