Our Garden

 This was our garden on it's very first day of existence.

 And this is our garden today.

I've been wanting to blog about our garden for a while now, but have been putting it off for some reason.   And I had wanted Kyle to write this post since the garden has been completely his doing, but he wasn't into it.  Oh well, you'll just have to hear it from me! :)

It all started when Kyle bought this book on amazon called Square Foot Gardening.  The whole idea is basically using a lot less space for your garden by planting everything in a raised bed that is divided into 16 square foot boxes.  It uses less space and can be placed anywhere, even on a city balcony or porch, as long as the garden would get enough sunshine!  So after lots of talking about it, one Saturday we finally headed off to Home Depot to gather all the supplies. 

The first step was assembling the box. 

First he screwed 4-4 foot cedar boards together.

Then he screwed these 6 pieces of wood together to make the grid.

Pootie was a good little helper.

All finished!

It was then moved to the backyard.  And this spot was picked after lots and lots of discussion about where it should've gone..

The book explains how to create the perfect soil mixture: peat moss, vermiculite, and a few different types of compost.

He then mixed it all together on this tarp.

He lined the bottom of the box with weed-blocker-fabric and then filled it with the soil mixture.  And finally we (Kyle) got to plant everything!

The garden is filled with lots of yummy veggies: red (actually green) peppers, spinach that was replaced by corn because it was a FAIL, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce, more peppers, watermelon, basil, zucchini, more squash, and strawberries which also failed.  We also planted some marigolds to help keep the buggies away.

Baby Garden.

Now I'm gonna show you a few of the treasures that have started growing.  WARNING: I feel like a proud mother showing these photos, but if pictures of plants bore you, please do not proceed.

Our lettuce on the first day.

And the FREAK lettuce today.  It just keeps growing and growing!

Little baby basil and squash.

And the basil and squash today.  I've probably picked about 6 cups of basil off these already.  These squash have really only been successful at smothering all the plants surrounding it...

Eggplant and tomato plant.

Our b-e-a-utiful eggplant today! So proud of that thing, I think it may be my favorite :)  Kyle built a trellis to support and train the plants.

The tomatoes today.  One is even turning red!!!

Green pepper that should've been RED.  Those home depot peeps are liars.

The baby carrots today.  These started off as seeds, so this progress is very exciting.

Petite bell peppers today.

Zucchini today.

Our failure at life spinach that we recently replaced with corn.

Kyle LOVES this garden.  Everyday he comes home from work, says hello to us, and then heads out to tend to it.  What a good garden daddy he is!  I love it though because we all hang out outside for a while and Cambria has a blast watering the plants and helping Kyle.  She also likes to sneak up and steal tomotoes that aren't yet ready to be picked... But seriously, I love that she is (literally) getting down and dirty with dirt and is already able to realize where some of the food she eats actually comes from.  I know a lot of children will never have that opportunity, so I am very grateful my children can experience it. 

Cambria was feeding the garden dirt.

See :)

So far, we've eaten lettuce, basil, and onion.  Hopefully soon more of the goodness will be ready to be picked and eaten! The whole gardening thing seemed scary and intimidating at first, but it's really been fun.  Oh and we will be able to use this bed for a long time, as long as the wood holds up.  I think everyone should give gardening a try, even if it's one little plant, the satisfaction of seeing your work produce something feels fantastic!