My garden is my happy place. I love the odd shaped vegetables and the small fruits. Nothing I have grown would catch your eye in a commercial grocery store. Living here in the Las Vegas desert and being able to grow these imperfect yet delicious fruits and vegetables is what gives me the most pleasure. As summer creeps to an end I wanted to share a few of my favorite garden memories. We added chickens this year. Five hens joined our little family and we have just started to enjoy their beautiful eggs. If you think you can’t have your own garden your wrong. I started with citrus trees in containers. I added raised beds on my side yard and I dedicated one full bed to strawberries. We make fresh jam each spring. One peach tree, a plum tree and two grapevines. I have learned so much online and thought my grapes were duds until I read that grapes take three years to produce. Now almost five years later we enjoy small but very sweet bunches. Our chickens live in a fabulous coop that I found online then flew to Austin Texas to see. It is from the Urban Chicken Coop Company and it would work in a modest size yard. The chickens are loving,tame and very smart and every morning I get a warm welcome and fresh eggs.

It is always a work in progress and I have plans to add a bench and a raised herb planter now that the weather is cooling off. I have always said big or small your yard is an extension of your home. It’s been fun growing some things we enjoy eating in ours.