Our Garden

This year we decided to plant a garden! It's been quite an experience, learning how to grow stuff and keep it alive! We decided to do a square foot garden. We made a 4x4 wooden box. Luckily, Dan knows a thing or two about tools and making stuff. :)

Dan working so hard to make our garden box.

We then made the dirt mixture from 3 parts compost, peat moss and vermiculite. We had to mix it in a tarp. It wasn't too hard, but did take a little while. We then had to drag the dirt over to the garden and dump it in.

We planted our seeds in these little soil things. I'm sure the have a name, I just can't remember it. :) You cover them and it makes a little green house to keep temperatures wamr to encourage growth. Unfortunately, we planted a little too early, because some of them sprouted really early, and it was still too cold to plant them outside. We had a lot of them die, so we had to replant. I give all credit to Dan in keeping everything alive.

However, Providence smiled down upon us and we were able to plant and actually have things start to grow! We planted corn, beans, tomatoes, basil, peppers, carrots, oregano, onions, and parsley. We went on vacation a couple of times and had people come over and water the garden for us, but the onions and some other things died during that time.

The other problem is just this area! The sun ca be so brutal sometimes. There were a couple of times that I forgot to water the garden and it killed some things. I was very sad about the peppers. they were just starting to grow and then I was busy and forgot to water the garden till 2:30 pm. Even though it was overcast that day, the heat just got to them and I don't think they're going to make it. Part of them turned brown and they haven't really grown. On a positive note, our tomatoes have FINALLY started to grow. All summer long-nothing. I love garden tomatoes. Our other champion is our basil plants. We've made pesto about 3 times and it's so good! Our corn was doing awesome as well, until ants attacked it and it too has gone the way of the earth.

We were curious if our carrots were ready, so we pulled one. It looks like we pulled out a mutant one.

One tomato that ripened.

Here is a current photo of our garden. I thought I had a nicer one when everything was in full bloom and all nice and green. I know it doesn't look like much, but it's all we got. :) I'm very excited about the tomatoes and hope they turn out okay.

I think we've learned a thing or two this year and hopefully next year's crop will turn out better!