My Herb & Vegetable Garden (2022 - 2024)

My New Raised Bed Garden: 2022 - 2024

I decided to start my raised bed gardening again in 2022. I just have always had this intuition when things are going to get bad and to prepare for the worse. That being said, I knew that I needed to start building my herbal medical cabinet and then my vegetable garden.  Thankfully, I had all my prior experience of raised bed gardening 2007 - 2012, my old gardening journal, my old gardening books and started on this journey. 

The beginning of my raised garden July 2022

I found these self watering containers at Home Depot back in 2022 for about $40 each. That was definitely a steal for me because I had experience building my own raised garden in 2007 from scratch. Not fun if you don't have carpentry experience. I remember the palms and the grip of my hands being super sore and my skin really irritated. 

Broccoli 

My first lettuce plant with companion plant Marigold

Aloe and Salvia

Echinacea on the back left

🠉This was my garden from January 2022 - February 2023. Some plants I bought from the discount shelf at the stores, others I grew from seed. Below, is the progress of my garden from March 2023 - 2024.

My first mini harvest of rosemary & my little helper Taco the Chiweinie!

This Bachelor Button was a difficult grow, but worth the beauty of the flower.

My garden started taking up more space. I now have pineapple in the mix. This pineapple actually produced one fruit and a tacuache (possum) ate half of it before I got to harvest. Lesson learned to when pick your fruits before the pests get to them. 

Harvest of Cuban Oregano

My first California Strawberry growing! I bought these plants at Wal-Mart for about $4 each. I got a handful of strawberries from these plants. 

Moving up to a 8x4x2 Raised Bed

I ordered this larger stainless steel raised bed on Amazon for around $90 for my Herb Garden. I really wanted to start producing a lot more food for myself. I had seen these beds online as I got more affiliated with Tiktok. Very easy to put together! When I did this back in 2007, I built the bed by hand with wood boards, a saw, & large plastic mesh sheet to protect the bottom of the bed from ground dirt & weeds. As you can see in the picture above, the bed is half full with some dried palm leaves & tree branches. 

This time around I bought Vermiculite to add to the soil mix!

When I built my raised bed before, I didn't have a lot of monetary resources and didn't buy vermiculite. My raised bed in 2007 did very well without the vermiculite, I used mulch instead to keep the soil moist. 

Adding my Lemongrass plant from my smaller raised beds.

I was very surprised when i saw how much the root system grew into the smaller raised beds self-watering storage chamber. I had to cut all this roots off.

Look at that root system that grew!

Filling up the bed with soil for raised beds & adding more Herbs

After I had filled up the beds with dried plant matter, tree branches and palm leaves, I added raised bed soil from Wal-Mart. I placed the plants where I wanted them while keeping in mind that some grow very tall, some are compatible together while others are not. I later learned that the City of McAllen has it's own compost, mulch & soil for way cheaper than Wal-Mart. I was buying 4 cubic feet for $7 each at Wal-Mart while the City of McAllen sells the same for $3.

The finished Herbal raised bed garden

Herbal Raised Bed Garden end of 2023

My Herbal Raised Garden 2024

The beginning my Vegetable & Fruit Garden

 After mastering my technique to grow an herbal medicine cabinet in my back patio, I decided to move on and start growing my vegetable garden in pots and my small raised gardens. With the success of moving my herbal plants to an 8x4x2 stainless steel raised garden, the plans for the future raised vegetable will eventually manifest.

Alpine Strawberry 

I got this awesome garden light at Dollar Tree! I love the butterfly inside!

First Harvest of Arugula & Red Lettuce

Green Lettuce & Arugula in my 2x2x1 raised (self-watering) container

Echinacea Bloom

Grape tomatoes mini harvest

Building my Stainless Steel Vegetable Raised Bed Garden 8x4x2

Steel Raised Bed Pieces

Almost done putting raised bed together

Gathering FREE organic matter for the 2nd raised bed

 

Bag of dried leaves from Texas Oaks

Large Palm & small Texas Oak leaves fill half of raised bed

Raised bed now ready for compost & soil

Placing where my plants are compatible to each other

Plants removed from their containers & inside the raised bed for my vegetables.

Beet Pasta

 It has been a long time since I posted on my blog and I have a lot of new things to share with you all. I was blessed with a Christmas gift from one of my clients, Kitchen-Aid Mixer, and I have been a busy bee! Ordered the pasta attachment and learned how to make my own pasta! 

Making raviolis & saving rest for noodles

Put dough through pasta roller & cutting up noodles by hand.

Noodles ready to cook!

Beet Pasta 🍝

Ingredients:

2 cups of organic white flour 

1 cup of pre-cooked pureed beets

2 brown organic eggs

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 teaspoon of pink salt 

Directions: 

1. Add the ingredients together in a mixer on the dough setting. Keep a little bit extra of the white flour on the side to help with rolling out the dough. Allow the mixer to knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Keep adding some of the extra flour to the dough until it doesn't stick to your hands.

2. Flour your wooden board with some more of the extra flour and separate the dough in 3 or 4 portions. Wrap in plastic or cover in a container and refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze until needed. 

3. Remove a portion from the refrigerator and let sit for about 5 - 10 minutes before rolling it out with a rolling pin. One portion makes a good amount of noodles for 1 - 2 people. I have a kitchen-aid pasta roller attachment which makes the whole process a lot easier. Make sure to have some extra flour to keep the dough from sticking. 

4. Make sure to wrap in plastic the rest of the dough and place it in the freezer until you are ready to cook. Once you have you dough at the consistency and as flat as you want, you can cut up your pasta in noodles or raviolis. I have made both. I don't have the pasta cutter so I cut my pasta by hand. You can make your noodles has thick or thin as you want!

5. Boil the noodles or raviolis in water, a teaspoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Noodles should be ready in 10 minutes depending on how thick they are. Raviolis take about 10 minutes depending how big they are as well. 

Enjoy making your beet pasta!

Top Roast Recipe

I cook at home a lot and I tend to forget that there are many people who do not know who to cook from scratch. I had a client tell me about how she tried beef skirt (fajitas) and it was SO TOUGH to eat. I asked her how did she prepare the beef and I quickly realized she didn't know how to tenderize or marinade beef protein. So I made a quick and easy recipe you can work with without coming up with the combinations of herbs and spices! This recipe uses Ms Dash!

Easy Beef Marinade

• Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 1/8 cup of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp of Ms Dash ( of your choice)

Top Roast Recipe

• Ingredients:
• 1 four to 5 lbs. top roast
• Easy Beef Marinade

Directions:

1. Place the roast in a container and add the marinade. Allow to sit in the fridge at least 4 - 8 hours, flipping it to make sure all the meat is covered in the marinade.

2. After it has sat over night, take it out of the fridge. Set the heat for the stove for 425 degrees. Place a medium sized pan on medium/high heat. Once the pan is ready, place the roast on the pan and cook each side for 5 to 7 minutes depending how thick your roast is.

3. Your oven should be heated and transport the roast in a pan and bake for 30 - 45 minutes. Meat will come out juicy and tender!