Gilliland’s Garden

First, I want to apologize for being off the radar for so long! I will just leave it at: life happens. I am going to write about various topics.

I am not sure how much of the local news I will start publishing again. I will take it one step at a time. If you have any information you would like me to share, feel free to contact me, even if it is not news. I am open to suggestions.

The topic I chose today was our garden. I know many of you also garden. If you’d like to share about your garden, I would love to hear from you.

We have always had a garden in the nearly 25 years we have lived here. For many years, it was just for us. My husband, Jeff, grew up on a farm. Living in town wasn’t a good fit for him at first. He was always so proud to farm. He felt he was helping others. He took pride in growing crops that would feed so many people. As you can imagine, our garden was huge! We could never eat it all. Yes, we froze many things, such as salsa, tomato juice, etc. for use during the winter months. I never learned how to can, so I was thrilled to discover freezing salsa, tomato juice, peppers, tomatoes and green beans worked just as well!

At least 7 or so years ago, I came up with an idea! I asked Jeff is we could make the garden even larger and have our own farmers market during the summer! He instantly said yes. We decided to set our prices low and to also donate veggies to the school and the nursing home, which we have been doing for years now. We want to help others in need. Those that may not be able to grow a garden, or don’t have the room to and we especially wanted to help the elderly. We have achieved our goals, and then some. Jeff is feeling much better about living in town again. He feels like he is still helping others. I feel the same way.

Is it a lot of work? Yes. But isn’t anything worth doing?

We grow cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, green beans, zucchini and this year we are growing cabbage. We may add more. I never know what Jeff has planned!

I put a table up and fill it with all of our goodies! I post it on facebook to get more attention. Most of the local people know about our stand and come over quite regularly. We have had people come from miles around to purchase vegetables from us. We are also certified through the state to accept coupons elderly people can obtain at their local senior center!

We also have chickens and sell fresh eggs! We sell them year round!

Please feel free to stop by our stand this summer for veggies and eggs. We are located on main street in Oakland, Nebraska. We are across the street from the Methodist church, and a bit south in a yellow ranch style house.

We are looking forward to seeing you at Gilliland’s Garden!