• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About
    • Meet Tara
    • Contact
    • Disclosure
    • Family Photography
    • PR & Advertising
    • Privacy Policy
  • CRAFT
    • Edible Food Crafts
    • Fabric Crafts
    • Home Decor
    • Kids
    • Papercrafts
    • Party DIY
    • Printables
    • SVG Cut Files
    • Wearables
  • PARTY
    • Baby
    • Birthday
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Father’s Day
    • Halloween / Fall
    • Mother’s Day
    • Patriotic / Summer
    • School / Grad
    • Sports
    • St Patricks Day
    • Thanksgiving
    • Valentine’s Day
    • Wedding
  • Home
    • Basement / Garage
    • Bathroom
    • Bedroom
    • Entryway
    • Kitchen
    • Living Room
    • Office
    • Outdoors
  • LIFE
    • Blog Life
    • Favorite Products
    • Organization
    • Parenting
    • Travel
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
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit

Related

in Home Decor & Landscaping, Outdoors # vegetable garden

Spotofteadesigns.com Signature Design showing ways to socially follow this DIY/Parenting blogSpotofteadesigns.com Signature showing how to follow on twitter. Username: spotofteadesignSOTD2019SignatureFollow4FacebookSpotofteadesigns.com Signature showing how to follow on pinterest. Username: spotofteadesignSpotofteadesigns.com Signature showing how to follow on instagram. Username: spotofteadesignsSpotofteadesigns.com Signature

Reader Interactions

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Meet Tara

You can probably find me in my craft room, in front of a computer or behind the camera lens.
LEARN MORE

EMAIL NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

Sign up and be the first to know about new posts filled with printables, svg cut file designs and gift ideas!

Privacy Policy

HALLOWEEN

DIY Rain Cloud Costume using Poly-Fil from @FairfieldWorld | spotofteadesigns.com
Goonies Halloween Party - Unique Dessert Table that features movie Easter Eggs | spotofteadesigns.com
Spooktacular Teacher Halloween Thank You Tag and Gift Idea | Spotofteadesigns.com
Broom Hair Don't Care Halloween T-shirt using SVG and Siser's Vernice HTV | spotofteadesigns.com
Group Halloween Costume - Prison Inmates and Prison Guards | spotofteadesigns.com
Shop the Spot of Tea Designs Amazon Store front | spotofteadesigns.com

Amazon Associates Disclosure

Tara Nehil is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

LATEST GRAMS

POV: You grew gourds in your garden all summer so POV: You grew gourds in your garden all summer so you can say you spent $0 on your front porch decor. 
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #vegetablegarden #homeground #backyardgarden #hellofall #frontporch #porchdecor #falldecor #gourds #pumpkins
Homemade Zombie Party Treats: 💀 Brain cupcakes Homemade Zombie Party Treats:
💀 Brain cupcakes (just use a small piping tip to draw the pattern)
💀 Forked Eyeballs (donuts, chocolate candy and red icing)
💀 Mini Graveyard (Oreo cookie and chocolate pudding dirt cake with cookie gravestone)
💀 Cup of Eyes (red jello with plastic ball accessory)
💀 Bonus: Turn a thrifted doll toy into a unique candy bowl. (Scroll to see what it was before!).
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #zombieparty #halloweenparty #halloweentreat #halloweendessert #trickortreat #sugarhigh #desserttable #makersgonnamake #craftersgonnacraft #thrifted
Do you have someone in their field hockey era in y Do you have someone in their field hockey era in your house, too? Her first game is tomorrow, so it's the perfect time to bring back this svg cut file design. Grab it in my etsy shop and craft one up on a t-shirt or long sleeve with any @sisernorthamerica heat transfer vinyl!
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #sotdsvg #fieldhockey #svgcutfile #cricutcreated #cricutcrafted #heattransfervinyl #siserna #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake
Part 3: Update on the harmless prank of hiding 100 Part 3: Update on the harmless prank of hiding 100 tiny plastic frogs in my parent's house: They have found 73 at our last count. 
.
Note: no small kids or pets live or visit this home!
.
Comment FROG if you want a link to do this with your family or friends! 
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #prank #favoritethings #hiding #parents #jokes #houseguest
My blog turns 15 next month and I have lots of yea My blog turns 15 next month and I have lots of years sharing past homemade Halloween costumes, including all the ones we've done for the softball teams! 
.
Here are a few, which I either step out or provide free svg cut files to recreated them over on my blog.
.
Leave a comment if you need a direct link to one of the tutorials of the costumes shared!
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #sotdsvg #svgcutfile #handmadehalloween #cricutmade #cricutcreated #vinylallthethings #halloweencostume #softballlife #softballmom #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake
If you can knot friendship bracelets, you can do m If you can knot friendship bracelets, you can do macrame. 
.
Find all the details for these particular knots and this frame project over on the @custompictureframes blog!
.
.
.
#spotofteadesigns #getcustomframed #diyframe #walldecor #weddinganniversary #macrame #craftersgonnacraft #makersgonnamake
Follow on Instagram
2025 © Spot of Tea Designs
made by soulmuse