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Spot of Tea Designs

Spot of Tea Designs

Our Vegetable Garden part 4: Addition of Flower Bed

in Home Decor & Landscaping, Outdoors

Year 3 of our backyard vegetable garden brought us some new fruits and veggies, including cubanelle peppers and cantaloupe, plus the expansion of a flower bed around the border. Here’s an update to my Vegetable Garden series for those who are looking for inspiration and advice from our successes/failures.

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - | spotofteadesigns.com

DISCLOSURE: Some of the links in this post contain affiliate links, which come at no cost to you. Know that I only promote products I personally use and stand behind. To learn more about my affiliates, please review my disclosure policy.

3 years ago at the start of spring our backyard looked like this:

Our Backyard Vegetable Garden - Part 1: the plans | spotofteadesigns.com

And here’s what it looked like at the start of this spring before we planted this year’s crop:

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - where we started in spring | spotofteadesigns.com

Yes, you’ll remember we added a nice backyard garden and have been enjoying the fruits of our labor all summer. But there’s always room for learning and growth and this year was no different. I really didn’t like how the grass grew up around the fence last year, as seen in the photo above, so we decided to make a change this year.

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - outer flower bed in progress | spotofteadesigns.com

After some heavy work, we removed the grass around the border and eventually added some flowers and mulch. I really wanted to add flowers, not only for aesthetics, but also to encourage pollinators that would help our garden grow.

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - flower bed after | spotofteadesigns.com

I did some googling on what flowers a deer would avoid and went with marigolds and stevia. I heard marigolds were especially good to plant near tomatoes. What I didn’t realize is that bunnies love them!

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - flowers added to flower bed | spotofteadesigns.com

After they gobbled up my first round of flowers, I went back to the garden center and picked up just one pot each of “demin n lace” and “Poquito lavender” which google said wasn’t liked by bunnies. Google was right! After planting these, the other plants came back as I guess the bunnies didn’t like the smell. Next year I’ll be adding more around the garden to add more color!

Vegetable Garden Update - DIY Strawberry Cage | spotofteadesigns.com

I also realize I never shared on my blog about our DIY strawberry cage we added last summer and was KEY to get the huge strawberry hauls we got all spring and summer! See the building of it in action on my instagram reel!

Backyard vegetable garden - first year lessons learned - strawberries | spotofteadesigns.com

The pop up tents we used the first year were great in the beginning of the season, but it could no longer contain the plants growth by the end of the season. Whatever breed of strawberries we planted the first year, do have runners growing off it and the whole box is now strawberries!

Vegetable Garden Update - strawberry haul | spotofteadesigns.com

We get tons of strawberries throughout the season even though I continue to cut back the plants!

Vegetable garden updates 2023 - cataloupe | spotofteadesigns.com

2023 also brought us some new plant varieties, including growing yellow belle peppers (they take forever to ripen and turn yellow compared to the green ones!), cantaloupe (2 out of our 8 grew to maturity and were delicious!) and Cubanelle peppers (which were very plentiful, but also took forever to turn red).

Future vegetable garden plans:

  • Return to Roma Tomatoes – We tried different plant varieties this year and decided those really were the best for sauce making!
  • Add more super sweet mini tomatoes – These are always well loved, are easy to bring to a party as an appetizer, use in tacos or gift to a neighbor
  • Research another climbing plant for the other side of our cucumber trellis. We did peas and string beans, which grew well, but our family wasn’t really a fan of eating them.

Past Vegetable Garden Posts

Get caught up on previous posts which share the step by step process and accessories we built to create the vegetable garden we grow today!

Our backyard vegetable garden - part 2: building the fence and the raised beds | spotofteadesigns.com
DIY Garden Markers - how we realized our backyard vegetable garden | spotofteadesigns.com
DIY Garden Markers - how we realized our backyard vegetable garden | spotofteadesigns.com
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in Home Decor & Landscaping, Outdoors # vegetable garden

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LATEST GRAMS

Some highlights of what my yard produced this year Some highlights of what my yard produced this year:
🎃 Gourds - currently 42 harvested and drying, but tons more coming!
🌞 Yellow Roses - these 2 plants bloom at least 4 times in spring and summer!
🍅 Tomatoes - tons of Roma and Supersweet 100 breeds used for appetizers, sauces and salads. Happy to grow and to gift these away!
🧄 Garlic - planted last fall and harvested in June. Doing this again this October! Should I also do onions?
💜 Lavender - The bees love them. I missed the window to dry them but putting that on my list to try next year. Would you want a little satchel of lavender? 
🥒 Cucumbers - slice it up and add some sea salt. Yum!
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#spotofteadesigns #gardening #vegetables #vegetablegarden #homegrown #backyard
Visit the aerial park @treetopquestphilly for a gr Visit the aerial park @treetopquestphilly for a great adventure! #AD
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Our group of 2 adults and 5 kids were hosted by TreeTopQuestPhilly and enjoyed a sunny Saturday exploring obstacles, climbing and ziplining and we'd highly recommend this park! 
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Here some key details to know before you go:
- The staff is super knowledgable, friendly and patient with climbers of all abilities, but it is self paced where you are in control of your own equipment. 
- You attend an equipment fitting, safety instruction and practice course before you climb 
- Expect to spend the full 2.5 hours of your reservation and you likely won't need sunglasses in this shady spot
- Gloves are an optional purchase, but we didn't get them and no one got any blisters
- There are 4 levels of courses with Level 4 being for those 12+ only. It's HIGH but thrilling to those willing to check it out! 
- Porta potties and lockers are available at the check in area and there are plenty of benches and picnic tables to sit at in the park. Spectators are free to watch from below. 
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PROMO CODE: Use code SPOTOFTEADESIGNS for 15% off your online ticket order to climb!
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#spotofteadesigns #treetopquestphilly #treetopquest #ziplining #getoutside #familytravel #philadelphia #philly #njmom #kidsactivities
Cardstock pennant banner tip - create the separate Cardstock pennant banner tip - create the separate piece shown on the video and add it to the back of your pennant to help it hang more securely, hide the ribbon and not move as much when hung. 
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Special thanks to @wildercrafting who shared this tip YEARS ago, and I still use it when creating my simple banners.
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#spotofteadesigns #cardstockcrafts #cricutmade #cricutcrafts #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake #lemonadestand #fundraiser #pennant #banner #garland
If you're on a fence about creating a garden next If you're on a fence about creating a garden next year.... do it! While I personally don't eat everything we grow (not a pepper fan!), I do enjoy being outside, caring for the plants, and feeding friends and family! 
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You can start this fall with garlic! You start planting them in the fall, and you'll enjoy them by summer. 
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#spotofteadesigns #gardening #garden #tomatoes #cucumbers #bruschetta  #homegrown #vegetables #vegetablegarden
Twins run on my dad's side of the family, so I gre Twins run on my dad's side of the family, so I grew up thinking I might have my own pair. Little did I know it would be a pair of birthday twins born 2 years apart! Join me in celebrating my favorite DIY creations turning 10 and 12 today! 🎉
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#spotofteadesigns #happybirthday #tweens #thisis10 #doubledigits #thisis12 #birthdaytwins
Want to know how to celebrate National Potato Day Want to know how to celebrate National Potato Day thanks to @fairfieldworld AD ?
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Craft a giant baked potato out of recycled goods and filled with fluffy Poly-Fil! This fun craft material can be used inside and outside of crafts! Whether it's to make an oversized starch filled vegetable statement piece or you use it to make a baked potato costume, this fluffy stuff should be a staple material in your craft closet!
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#FairfieldWorld #PolyFil #PolyfilwithJoy #bakedpotato #giantfood #recycled #upcycled #nationalpotatoday #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake
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