Our Growing Garden

We decided to grow a real garden this year in our backyard. Jason built a raised area for soil by drilling holes in landscaping timbers and staking them into the ground with cut-pieces of rebar. The garden area is in the shape of a trapezoid, and has sectioned off the upper right corner of our fenced yard. Next, he ordered dirt, and they came and dumped a pile of it in our driveway. When the dirt was delivered, the neighborhood kids were on Spring Break, so they all came over to play in the dirt. They asked us if they could ride their bikes in the mound, and had lots of fun doing that! They even built jumps, and tried to catch some air off our dirt pile. As Jason worked to haul the dirt to our garden plot, the kids grew more and more sad, because their bike jump was quickly deminishing. They kept asking us if we could order some more dirt --they really loved it!

Finally, we scraped the last of the dirt off our driveway, and the rain washed the last grains away. We used hoes, rakes, and hand-tillers to prepare the soil for planting. It was so much fun to figure out where to plant the seeds, and where to transplant the roses, vincas, hydrangea bush, and pink jasmine vine. We even drew a little diagram to figure out the best use of the space. As we worked, Jason built a path in the middle, also.

We planted seven tomato bushes, one strawberry plant, and nine cabbage plants. We also planted seeds for three zucchini mounds, three squash mounds, two rows of sugar snap peas, and two mounds of cucumbers. Everything is sprouting now, and we are so excited! The tomato plants and cabbage plants have doubled in size, and the sugar snap peas are starting to vine.

I'm also planning to sprout some seeds for herbs and several varieties of flowers, but will have to work on that this weekend.