After Mother’s Day each year, my children know we will plant a garden. Having a back yard garden is a fun, productive activity for my kiddos and me. Each year, we seem to ask my husband to dig out a bigger bed than the previous year and we always manage to fill it up with seeds and plants.

We happen to love fresh summer vegetables and fruit and what a better way to have them all summer long than to plant them in our back yard? Not only do I save a huge bunch of money on my grocery bill over the summer months by supplying my family with fresh organic summer foods; I also give the kids a chance to grow closer to nature. There is nothing more delicious than freshly picked vegetables from your own garden.

We are a family of tomato lovers, so we always plant plenty of tomatoes and manage to have them from August through the end of October, as long as we do not get any freezing weather. Tomatoes also happen to be one of the easiest plants to grow in a home garden.

Another favorite in our family is string beans. I recall as a child picking rows upon rows of string beans for my grandmother to can, and I had so much fun helping her with this task. My little girls love nothing more than to grab a bowl and check to see how many beans are ready each day. This is another very easy seed to grow, and you will have had it all summer long, well into the fall.

I also plant peas for my little one, as she will gobble them right up from the pod minutes after she plucks them from the plant. This is another very easy vegetable to grow, in the fall, you would simply need to cut the plant down, and it will come back in the spring the following year.

Some of my favorite summer foods to plant are kale, radishes, and beets. I make a delicious summer salad out of these three vegetables that I could eat every single day. Beets are extremely easy to grow as well, and another bonus for our family is our bunny loves the leaves from the beets, so I literally do not throw any part of this plant away.

For summer fruits, we only plant melons, as other fruits are more difficult to plant in the Midwest. We plant cantaloupe and watermelon and sadly, we usually do not get a great turnout of these fruits. We try hard but always seem to do better with vegetables.

There are a number of vegetables that can be grown in the summer. What are your favorite summer foods to grow in a garden?

Ingredients

For the salad

• 4 oz. fresh kale

• ¼ cup Honey Balsamic Dressing

• 3 cups fresh roasted beets

• 2 avocados diced

• ¼ cup dried cranberries or any other dried fruit you may have

• 10 oz. goat cheese

• 5 oz. walnuts finely chopped

Honey Balsamic Dressing

• ½ cup balsamic vinegar

• 3 tbsp. honey

• ½ tsp. salt and pepper optional

• 1 cup olive oil I use grapeseed or coconut oil

Instructions

• Mix together salad components and place on a plate.

• In a jar, add the dressing ingredients and shake vigorously until all combined and then pour over the salad.