Gardening

My garden has increased in size every year. I use the term "garden" loosely, being that my first one consisted of various herbs and little more than a tomato plant in a pot. But these garden beds were inspired by a demonstration from my friend Becky Hammond, who displayed her talent in a step-by-step fashion at a meeting within our mother's group. How hard could it be? I headed to my favorite store, Home Depot, for 2x10x16' lumber, stakes, and Deckmate screws to construct one 3x5' and two 4x8' beds. After clearing the remnants of a much smaller garden area and tilling the ground, I assembled the garden bed frames with reinforced 2x4" corner posts, and placed the stakes 6" deep into the soil, then fastened to the interior walls.

Then came the dump truck... Brady's favorite part. He is a good little helper! Two and a half yards of gardening soil was sufficient for this project. For weed barrier beneath the soil, I used recycled cardboard cereal boxes and such, layered with newspaper, and hosed down with water.

Skylar and I did the spreading and packing!

Planting began in April. Some by seed, others by plants. Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, snap peas, pole beans, soy beans, watermelon, onion, radishes, green pepper, lettuce, to name a few.

We had lots of rain, for about two weeks, which kept me out of the garden.

To preserve moisture, I added mulch over the soil once the rain subsided. And just for fun, lined the walkways with pea gravel. Completely unnecessary, but pretty!! :)

Things are growing well. Some seeds didn't take, but it's been a learning experience. The kids are most excited for the watermelon. I'm most excited that the project is finished and I can sit back and reap the harvest!